We may not have officially kicked off summer, but that doesn’t mean it’s too soon to start planning for Halloween. Specifically, it’s time to think about this year’s Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights. And this year, expect to hear some disturbing clicking sounds in their latest Haunted House. Because Naughty Dog has revealed that their iconic game (now HBO sensation) The Last of Us will get its own Halloween Horror Nights haunted house this fall.

The Last of Us haunted house will welcome guests at Universal Studios Orlando on September 1. The Universal Studios Hollywood version opens on September 7. Watch the super creepy announcement video:

The description for The Last of Us Halloween Horror Nights experience is as follows:

The Last of Us haunted houses on both coasts will propel guests into a world of carnage and mayhem as they follow in the footsteps of the game’s protagonists, Joel and Ellie, who endure a brutal journey in a world overtaken by a fungal virus that turns humans into various forms of a new threat known as the Infected. As guests encounter the Infected – Runners, Stalkers and Clickers – along with The Hunters, a band of hostile humans, they will need to navigate the Pittsburgh Quarantine Zone, including iconic locations from the video game such as the creepy and desolate The Hotel Grand and a labyrinth of dark and dank tunnels, in a desperate attempt to escape and survive.

Executive Producer of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood John Murdy has longed to include The Last of Us for a long time. In a statement, he said, “The world inside the game offers a multitude of suspenseful and horrifying opportunities.” Thanks to the popularity of both the game and the TV series, we expect the lines for this one to be substantial. We expect more HHN announcements in the weeks to come. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit Universal’s site.

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The fear of something unknown or scary coming to get you is a big part of our childhoods. We imagine a monster is under our beds or something is lurking in the dark corner of our rooms. Or perhaps we hear strange, creaking sounds and think something sinister is waiting for us. It usually turned out to be our very active imaginations but some stories suggest otherworldly happenings. That’s what we get with Cobweb, a horror thriller starring Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr, and Woody Norman with a very creepy trailer. 

In the clip, we meet Norman’s character Peter. He’s eight years old and hearing knocks from his bedroom wall. Predictably, his mom Carol (Caplan) says his imagination is out of control. But there’s something surely happening from his perspective as he sees (and draws) very scary s**t. Meanwhile, his dad Mark (Starr) tells him that hard decisions must be made to protect family. We don’t know what that means in the context of their situation, but something’s not quite right with Mark. Then again, Starr does play Homelander so it is very easy to see him as a villain.

The trailer for Cobweb promises many jump scares and plot twists ahead, which isn’t shocking considering the creative minds behind this film. Samuel Bodin of Marianne fame is the director and Chris Tomas Devlin (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) penned the script. The production team has hits like Barbarian and It under its belt. What is haunting poor Peter? Probably the ghosts of his parents’ mistakes. The answers will come when Cobweb hits theaters on July 21.

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If there’s one thing horror has taught us, it is to not take things that don’t belong to you. Seriously, leave that creepy book, weird relic, and especially that pot of gold alone. If you do, you will be at the mercy of some evil entity, like a leprechaun. And we aren’t talking about the Lucky Charms dude. We mean one hell bent on revenge. The 1993 horror comedy Leprechaun introduced us to its titular figure, a wrinkled and super creepy killer who wants his gold back immediately. Three decades later, the Leprechaun franchise has eight films under its belt and there’s another one on the way. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a Leprechaun sequel is in the works with another movie that will reimagine this frankly ridiculous universe for a new generation of fans. 

The upcoming Leprechaun film will be directed by Felipe Vargas. He’s known for the stunning short film Milk Teeth. Mike Van Waes is penning the script. Producer Roy Lee of Barbarian fame is also on board for this sequel. Of course, we don’t know any further details at this time. But we are almost certain that many fans are hoping to see Warwick Davis reprise his role as The Leprechaun. It is possible that he won’t desire to come back considering he hasn’t been in the last two films. Either way, this Leprechaun sequel movie is quite unexpected but not too shocking. There are, after all, a ton of reboots and reimaginings in the world. Refreshing a classic story for a new audience certainly worked for the Scream franchise. Let’s see how this vengeful character will show up next.

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British post-apocalypse flick 28 Days Later hit American theaters on June 27, 2003, when psychological thrillers and re-imagined horror franchises ruled the box office. The zombie/undead sub-genre had been largely relegated to indie projects and B-movie status until 28 Days Later brought it back (sort of) with a story featuring running, raging infected humans. But, the real gift in this universe is Selena, played by Naomie Harris—a Black horror heroine worthy of all the praise.

In many horror films, the audience witnesses the leading lady’s evolution from normal to confused terror to a trauma-fueled rush of bravery and resilience as they take on whatever dark entity or situation comes their way. When viewers meet Selena, she is already deep into this transition after 28 terrifying days in the apocalypse. She has no grandiose hopes for a cure nor a desire to make big plans. And she certainly would never be a sacrificial lamb to make sure her White counterpart survives.

Selena’s Fiery Introduction in 28 Days Later

Selena’s introduction is aligned with her personality—energetic, fiery, calculated, and bold. She runs in with fire bombs to save Jim, a clueless man wandering the streets after waking up to a dangerous new world. Selena and her sole accomplice Mark are decked out in layers of clothing and gas masks before stripping down to reveal themselves to Jim. The former chemist breaks down the young apocalypse’s history in pragmatic fashion before assuring Jim that his family is dead.

Jim gets an advanced lesson on how brutal this world can be during an attack from “the infected” at his house: when Selena and Mark come to his rescue, Mark becomes wounded, and Selena wastes no time killing him with her machete. Of course, Jim is horrified by her swift action and challenges her response to the situation. Selena is undeterred by his emotion and explains why she killed Mark.

“Look, if someone gets infected, you’ve got between 10 and 20 seconds to kill them. It might be your brother or your sister or your oldest friends. It makes no difference. And just so you know where you stand, if it happens to you I will do it in a heartbeat.”

The Mind of Selena and How It Is Perfect for the Apocalypse

Selena’s self-preserving ideology, quick adjustment to a changing world, and ability to make split-second decisions based on facts are critical to their survival. She makes the logical choice to kill someone who would have become an inhuman terror in seconds. What’s interesting about this is that when men exhibit these traits they are often perceived as smart, capable leaders. Meanwhile, she’s seen as someone who went from being callous to a more “palatable and loving” person by the end of the film.

Further dialogue reveals that Selena is written specifically as a Black woman, which is important. Generally speaking, society often labels women, specifically Black women, as difficult or hard for simply standing their ground and saying what’s on their minds. Selena’s straightforward, assertive, and sometimes ruthless persona probably make Jim, a White man, feel quite uncomfortable because she’s a woman. He (and some of the audience) can’t see past her exterior to realize that Selena’s wonderful balance of survival instincts, tenacity, heart, and compassion are always present throughout the film.

She knows Jim’s parents are likely dead but she accompanies him to his home so he can have closure. Jim’s lack of knowledge and naïve outlook makes him a liability but she takes him under her wing anyway. Selena also shows genuine concern for his health as they climb tower stairs and questions why he didn’t say he say he was feeling unwell. She saves Jim from his own stupidity multiple times (why would he light a candle with zombies on the prowl?) and makes the choice to help Frank and Hannah go to Manchester even though it’s a risky plan.

If she were truly cold and unfeeling, she would have left the dad-daughter duo (and Jim) to their own devices. But, like most other people on Earth, she still wants to be connected to others. And as much as she talks about leaving people behind, she always uses the world we, signifying that they are a unit.

Selena finds joy in midst of bleakness through small moments: strolling through a grocery store, enjoying food, soaking up quiet time, and watching Frank and Hannah interact with each other. She becomes protective over her small group, especially Hannah. Similar to Alien’s Ellen Ripley and Newt, Selena comforts, guides, and protects Hannah after her Frank’s death. The group ends up in the hands of soldiers in Manchester, who are intent on sexually abusing women and girls. Frank and Jim really should have listened to Selena.

A Shifting Dynamic in Selena’s Apocalypse Saga

There are countless stories of abuse towards women in our “normal” world, so to have it present in a devolved society isn’t a far-fetched choice. It’s clear that a woman’s worst enemy in pretty much every apocalypse scenario is vile men. Selena is outnumbered, outgunned, and weaponless, but she uses her brains to try to make the situation better. She gives Hannah pills to emotionally numb her but keeps her own head clear during an escape attempt. Jim predictably becomes a trap-setting, stealth hero capable of tricking military-trained men (and raging infected people) so he can save the day. It’s a dynamic shift that stirs up mixed emotions.

Black women are always expected to be “strong” heroes who save everyone else, so it’s a change to see someone step up and come to her defense. (It’s the least he could do after she saved him multiple times.) But it’s somewhat frustrating to see Selena’s agency reduced so Jim can become the protagonist and ultimate hero. The fact is, Selena’s influence is what drives him to become the person he needs to be in that moment.

Selena’s Next Chapter Takes the 28 Days Later Universe to New Heights

Selena’s film story ends with her, Jim, and Hannah’s rescue, but that’s only the beginning for this character. In 2009, BOOM! Studios gave Selena her own comic series and expanded her characterization with a story that would have been incredible in live-action. In the 28 Days Later comic, Selena is alone again after Jim is set for execution for murdering the soldiers and Hannah was adopted by a German family (umm, what?). Those narrative stretches aside, the story sets Selena on a new path when she leaves a Norway refugee camp to guide American reporter Clint and his crew into London.

Clint is working on a story about NATO forces restoring the city and he needs Selena survival expertise to help guide him there safely. The comics stay true to her blunt persona but also allow readers to learn more about her life before and after the film’s events. According to notes from the film, director Danny Boyle and Naomie Harris created a background for Selena involving her killing her infected mother, brother, and father, but it was never explicitly explored onscreen.

However, the comic reveals via flashbacks that Selena had to kill her loving husband David after he became infected. She checks the attitudes of people in the groups, encounters gruesome dangers on the road, and grapples with coming to terms over David’s death.

In the end, she was able to properly process her emotions, grieve, and leave her machete behind for a new life in an American safe zone. It would have been incredible to watch Naomie Harris reprise her role for the kind of arc that allows Selena to be the primary protagonist and leader. Selena was given the space to not only survive but process her losses and define what it means to thrive in this world.

Selena’s journey is about the delicate balance between the ruthless actions needed to stay alive and maintaining a connection to the humanity within herself. She was prototype of The Walking Dead‘s Michonne and countless other women braving an infested world with a weapon in hand. There are a lot of sides to choose, and Selena’s is the right one to be on.

Originally published on June 26, 2020.

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It is time to face your demons. No, not that paralysis one that jolts you awake at night. (Or is that just a me problem?) I mean the ones that still haunt your dreams from the first two Insidious movies. Who can forget the terrors that the Lambert family experienced as demonic forces took over their son Dalton? The first Insidious film struck a nerve with horror fans back in 2010, leading to a sequel and two prequel films to follow. Now, we are back with Josh, Renai, and Dalton (who is still giving off wonderfully creepy vibes) in Insidious: The Red Door and, whew, is the film’s trailer scary as hell. It was high time to give those first two films a proper sequel.

This final trailer truly reminds us that the end of this family’s story is near. Watching that creepy entity crawl up on Josh Lambert is very, very wild, indeed. While this may mark the end of the Lambert family saga, we know that there is another tale coming from this universe. So the Further is far from being done with us. But, for now, we can also enjoy the clip above as well as the initial trailer, which really amps up the horror factor.

In addition to the trailers, here’s a quick synopsis of Insidious: The Red Door to get you up to speed: 

Set ten years after the end of the previous first two films, Josh Lambert heads east to drop his son Dalton off at an idyllic, ivy-covered university. However, Dalton’s college dream becomes a nightmare when the repressed demons of his past suddenly return to haunt them both.

As we see in those Insidious: The Red Door trailers, the family wants to forget The Further. But that’s just not working out for them. The only way they can move forward is to go deeper into the depths of darkness. They will have to face their past and more terrors that are behind the red door. Think of it as an unhappy anniversary celebration. The film welcomes back original cast members Patrick Wilson (who is also the director and is known for fighting the Moon), Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Andrew Astor, and Lin Shaye.

Insidious: The Red Door hits theaters on July 7.

Originally published on April 19, 2023.

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There’s nothing that says “horror” more than a creepy object that ends up being a portal to something sinister. It is always a good idea to leave that weird book, suspicious puzzle box, old relic, strange doll, etc., the hell alone. It is never, ever worth your soul to satisfy your curiosity. The characters in A24’s upcoming thriller Talk to Me obviously don’t know this, based on what we see in its first and second trailers. 

We meet a young woman (Sophia Wilde) who lost her mom. She gets together with friends, and they decide to have her connect with an embalmed hand in a ritual that will open and close spiritual doors with the command, “Talk to me.” She says it and discovers that the hand allows her to see on the other side, where her mom is trying to reach out.

Well, at least she thinks it is her mom. The figures she keeps seeing in the Talk to Me trailer look far from the norm. Apparently, she didn’t quite close that open door, and her life quickly takes a downward spiral. We can see even more of the chills to come in Talk to Me‘s second trailer.

Supernatural forces unleash themselves for what looks like quite the harrowing adventure. What is the deal with that hand? How will they close this portal? So many questions that need answers.

The Talk to Me trailers certainly grab hold of you and refuse to let go. The movie stars Sophie Wilde, Joe Bird, Alexandra Jensen, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, and more and comes from directors Danny and Michael Philippou. Talk to Me will hit theaters on July 28.

Originally published April 11, 2023.

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Believe it or not, it has been almost five years since Bird Box hit Netflix. The post-apocalyptic thriller starring Sandra Bullock and (a very hot) Trevante Rhodes became a bonafide hit for the streaming service thanks to its many meme-able moments. But, much like The Walking Dead and The Last of Us’ gnarly universes, we’ve always wondered what things are like in other places. How did this mysterious force that causes a person to die violently by suicide affect the rest of the world? Bird Box Barcelona aims to answer this question with a teaser trailer that sets up another dark quest for survival. 

The Bird Box Barcelona clip has a lot of what we are expecting in this follow-up film. People running all over the place in a panic before we zero in on a few key people who are trying to survive. The curious powers of these deadly entities also seem to be changing, which makes sense in this kind of world. It’s very much like The Last of Us having various types of Infected.

Our main man, Sebastian, will form terse alliances and try as hard as he can to get the hell out of Barcelona as another threat looms over them. As we can see in the Bird Box Barcelona teaser trailer, that’s going to be an arduous task. Very intriguing, indeed. 

Are you ready to see (this movie?) If so, you won’t have to wait long. Bird Box Barcelona will arrive at Netflix on July 14.

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One of life’s greatest wounds is death and the subsequent grief that follows. It is the steep price we pay for the honor of communing and sharing our soul with another living being. Their absence forces us to accept and acclimate to a new version of normal, one with a landmine of triggers that can slice our emotional flesh at any given moment. And, for some of us, death and loss are repetitive, cyclical hells that threaten to completely consume us at any moment like an invasive disease. But, what if death itself were a disease that could be cured? Would we want the antidote, even if it came with bloody ramifications? That is the crux of Bomani J. Story’s horror drama The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, a oft-bleak meditation on systemic oppression and violence, heartbreak, and death.

The film borrows general inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein but shifts its setting to a disenfranchised project housing development. At its center is Vicaria (Laya DeLeon Hayes), a gifted Black teenage scholar whose life has been marred by her surroundings. After losing her mother years prior and her brother Chris (Edem Atsu-Swanzy) recently to gun violence, Vicaria sees death as a disease and is on a mission to cure it. Unfortunately, her environment provides ample test subjects as she desires to bring her brother back to life. She’s the polar opposite of Dr. Frankenstein’s classic depiction as a wealthy privileged white man who is, in a sense, playing God because he can. 

She’s jokingly called the “mad scientist” and the moniker fits. This is especially true when she pulls flesh apart and reassembles it while disturbingly chuckling at her own brilliance. But, this is not about exploitation or satisfying a need to create something world-changing. Instead, Vicaria wants to bring balance to a community that is constantly in flux and soothe her palpable pain. A stroke of genius, luck, and, yes, electricity resurrects her brother… but there is a price to pay. Chris is not fully himself, but rather an entity hellbent on revenge. He seemingly reacts from a place of crushing residual pain from his life that ended far too soon. But, Vicaria’s pain and motivations provide further fuel for his actions, too.

DeLeon Hayes delivers a stunning performance as the titular and righteously angry Black girl. She dips between morbid curiosity, panicked fretting, paralyzing terror, and unbridled confidence with ease. Her heartbreaking rationale and ever-changing currents of grief will resonate with viewers as she parses through her grief. Vicaria fights against the ills of society with the only tools she has: her mind and determination.

The always-stunning Chad L. Coleman makes every second of his screen time count as Vicaria’s loving and protective father Donald, who struggles with drug usage and regrets. And, Denzel Whitaker’s Kango is a solid deuteragonist who is both a part of the problem and the solution. Whitaker and DeLeon Hayes go for several verbal sparring rounds with the final one packing a mighty punch. It is perhaps the best scene in the entire film that blurs the lines between hero and supposed villain.

The film’s version of the Modern Prometheus, however, is a mixed bag. Much of the resurrected Chris’ time depicts him as a vengeful boogeyman whose actions increasingly affect those who loved him. In a sense, this presents the conundrum about what it means to be alive. It surely is more than jolts of electrical energy through our bodies that make our hearts pump. Chris is breathing, walking, and can even say a few words but the essence of him is no longer present.

The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster uses Chris’ twisted body and exploits to lean into its horror. He presents as a shadowy hooded figure with a gravelly voice. His twisted fingers creep around a corner, a single eye peeking from an abandoned space to watch in silence. Story’s professed adoration for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Shining are crystal clear. There’s no holding back on the brutality he delivers but the gore is realistic vs. a more splatter approach to match the film’s overall tone. Unfortunately, the interactions between Vicaria and her resurrected brother lack the frequency and connection to truly drive home the film’s points about his humanity and motivations.

Despite a rather lean 92-minute runtime, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster painfully sags in the middle. The focus wanders too far away from its primary plot, losing the steam that it successfully built in its first act. Thankfully, things wander back on course for the third act with an intense, surprising, and thought-provoking finish. Overall, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster is an innovative take on a Gothic tale with sharp dialogue, solid performances, and a protagonist who wields a mighty power.

The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster will hit theaters on June 9. It will hit on Demand and Digital on June 23 before it later finds a home on Shudder and AllBlk.

The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster ⭐ (3.5 of 5)

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The Insidious franchise is back in full swing with Insidious: The Red Door. The film will bring the Lambert family back for presumably their final round against the dark forces of the Further. But that doesn’t mean this universe is done haunting us quite yet. Thread: An Insidious Tale will bring forth a new terrifying tale with Mandy Moore and Kumail Nanjiani leading its cast. Here’s what we know so far about what’s coming next.

According to Deadline, this sixth film will not be a continuation of the current storylines but instead an offshoot. In this Insidious sequel, Mandy Moore and Kumail Nanjiani will portray a husband-wife duo who use a spell to travel back in time to prevent their daughter’s death. As you can probably guess, this leads to some disastrous consequences. Time travel with the aims of a resurrection never did end particularly well for anyone. But at least the cast is killer.

At this point, we don’t know when this Moore and Nanjiani-led Insidious film will come out or any additional details about it beyond the short plot synopsis. But what else do you need to know when it comes to this universe? The Further awaits your arrival once again.

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Robert Englund is truly a national treasure, a fantastically versatile actor who is so much more than just Freddy Krueger. In the ’70s he was a character actor, appearing in smaller roles in dozens of famous films, like A Star is Born. And then, in the ’80s, he became a household name with the hit sci-fi series V, and of course, A Nightmare on Elm Street. His incredible life and career has now been chronicled in a new documentary, Hollywood Dreams and Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story. And we got the chance to chat with the iconic actor ahead of its release.

Nerdist: So a few years back you wrote a memoir called Hollywood Monster. Was that book the impetus for the documentary? Or was that book even being the subject of a documentary something you never considered when you wrote it?

Robert Englund: No, the book was my kind of summing up my life until 2010. I had been really busy till then, almost nonstop. And I was approached by Simon & Schuster and we did that and it was really hard. My wife and I worked with a co-writer to kind of find that voice. So that sort of summed up my life. But 2010, that’s almost 15 years ago. Since then, I’d been approached by a lot of people, but everybody wanted to do a real Freddy-centric kind of documentary with me. And I just felt there’s been so much by journalists and academics and by critics and genre magazines written about Freddy. I just didn’t think we could improve on that. It wouldn’t be something that could be done quickly, certainly.

And when the gentleman from Cult Screenings UK approached me, I was a little apprehensive because, with a name like Cult, I thought, “Oh, they want to do just Freddy.” And within a day, I realized hanging out with [co-directors] Chris Griffin and Gary Smart is like walking around with your own IMDB on your headphones. That’s when I said, “Look it, let’s not make this about talent, and let’s not make this about Freddy. It’s about an actor, a character actor. I’m a character actor, I’m a utility actor. Let’s make it about a guy who survived for 50 years in Hollywood and who’s still working.” I think that’s more interesting. Ups and downs, hills and valleys. Happy accidents.

Who knew that I would get to sit in the captain’s chair of this franchise for 20 years? I mean, no one sets out to be a burned serial killer as a career move, but it’s probably the smartest thing I ever did. It made me international, and I’ve done over a dozen movies in Europe now, and it’s just this great happy accident of a career. And now I’m on the other side of that and still doing genre work, but doing other stuff as well. Lots and lots of voice work. And I don’t think I’d be here if I hadn’t let them glue me up back in 1984.

Right before Elm Street, just one year prior, the big real breakout for you was the epic sci-fi mini-series V. Now V just turned 40. If you weren’t around for it back then, that was a huge show. Massive ratings. Looking back, how do you feel about the fact that it was so prescient, with its allegory about fascism?

Englund: Well, [V creator] Ken Johnson, I think originally wanted to do a serious thing about the occupation of Europe in World War II. But maybe he wanted to make it contemporary. But then they said, “Well, can you make it science fiction?” Because that’s his bailiwick. And Ken did. But the metaphor in V, of course, is the occupation of Europe by the Nazis. And yeah, I was really proud to be on board. That also was the project that made that first made me international. But because almost immediately thereafter in my hiatus between the miniseries and the series, I did the first Nightmare on Elm Street for Wes Craven. So I had this just fortunate one-two punch of an international science fiction hit and an international horror picture.

Suddenly, I went from being a face that people knew, but not a name. Overnight, people recognize me and I was an international actor. They don’t share this with you in acting class. A lot of agents don’t know this because not everybody translates internationally, especially comedians. Romcoms, things like that, they aren’t as effective internationally as opposed to fantasy, science fiction, action, and especially horror. Those movies seem to cross the Atlantic and the Pacific a little better. I’ve been on board for two huge projects, one sci-fi, and one horror, that traveled very well. And I was able to travel with them.

In the documentary, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 star Tuesday Knight tells a story about you filming a scene at the peak of Freddy mania. You were in your trailer, and she said dozens of fans were shaking it, trying to get you to come out and interact with them. Do you remember anything about that day?

Englund: Well, there’s a dreadful reservoir out in the San Fernando Valley that once upon a time was quite bucolic and wonderful, but a lot of it’s been paved over now with a parking lot. And we were out there trying to sell it as a location as the beach for a nightmare sequence, where we did a takeoff on Jaws with the Freddy claws. And of course, I had never been outside in the Freddy makeup in my life. I’d only worn it on a soundstage, which is mostly side lighting, not direct overhead sun, and certainly not summer sun in LA.

So they were hiding me a lot in the air-conditioned trailer. And we got the shots, and it was just too hot for me to sign any autographs. And the crowd outside had been building all day. The word had got out. So I went in, and it takes an hour to take off the makeup. And I went in the trailer and took off my shirt and sat down and began to take off my makeup, and the whole makeup trailer began to rock back and forth. And the crowd had grown and grown and grown. They were mad because someone had told them that I would be signing autographs or something. Then I think I signed a little bit outside to calm them down.

I mean, I had foam latex boogers still glued to various parts of my body and torso. And we finished taking the makeup off and then I just ran for my car. Because instead of the crowd diminishing, it had kept growing. And I said, “Thank you for all coming,” or something. So then I booked it and I had just bought a new fully bored-out Ford Mustang convertible. And I jumped in it like the Dukes of Hazzard and I tore off. And I think that day, one autograph I signed was on a girl’s cleavage.

And now it’s like 20 minutes later and I’m heading for my off-ramp off the freeway to go home. I look, and these cars pull up next to me and it’s people from the crowd. And I recognize on the back of a motorcycle, there’s the girl whose cleavage I signed, and I’m going, “Whoa.” So I shot past my own off-ramp on the freeway and went to the next one and went up to Mulholland Drive, and kind of worked my way back to my house. Because I didn’t want all the fans following me home. That was a real eye-opener. So that was making Nightmare 4. The beast has been unleashed.

Next year is the 40th Anniversary of Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare on Elm Street. Can you give the fans a tease about any special events celebrating Nightmare hitting such a big milestone?

Englund: Well, I’m going to be out on the road with the cast because I think that’s a big anniversary and we’re proud of the movie and it’s a chance for all of us to get together again. But it’s also a real opportunity for the serious fans of the franchise to get a picture taken with all of us, or me and Heather Langenkamp, or me “strangling” Heather. They can watch and laugh or something. And the fans love that. It’s wonderful when we have the whole cast because we can all spur our own memories of incidents that happened on the set, which the fans love to hear. And so I’ll be on the road probably doing a couple of Comic-Cons for Freddy’s fortieth.

Hollywood Dreams and Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story will be arriving exclusively to SCREAMBOX and Digital on June 6.

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Critical Role is branching into a new, spooky direction. The company announced an original horror tabletop roleplaying game: Candela Obscura. Premiering at the end of May, the game brings together investigators with a mission. Running on Darrington Press’ (Critical Role’s publishing arm) Illuminated Worlds System, Candela Obscura has a cast full of your favorites. Watch the trailer:

Created by Taliesin Jaffe and Chris Lockey, with Spenser Starke and Rowan Hall serving as lead designers and writers, and Steve Failows and Maxwell James as producers, Candela Obscura is a new ongoing show. Critical Role keeps bringing us different settings to explore, and we’re not mad about it. Related, they’ve shared a free Candela Obscura Quickstart Guide. You can download everything as PDFs (the full rulebook will be out later this year). The system is built on 6-sided dice and focuses on “narrative, arc-driven play.”

Candela Obscura‘s synopsis is as follows:

Set in a fictional turn-of-the-century inspired region known as the Fairelands, Candela Obscura follows an esoteric order of investigators as they use centuries of knowledge to fight back against a mysterious source of corruption and bleed. At the beginning of each episode, an inciting incident occurs, prompting a team (or “circle”) of investigators to uncover and solve the mystery at hand. The general public is unaware of the otherworldly truths of these paranormal phenomena, and the organization known as Candela Obscura works to maintain that secrecy and keep the world safe.

The cast includes Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, Robbie Daymond, and Anjali Bhimani. Matthew Mercer joins as the first chapter’s game master. The first chapter of Candela Obscura premieres on May 25 at 7:00 p.m. PT. You can watch it on Critical Role’s Twitch and YouTube channels. New episodes will drop on the last Thursday of the month.

Originally published on May 9, 2023.

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Stephen King’s short stories are some of the bleakest, most upsetting horror fiction of his career. And that’s really saying something. In the same stretch of the early ’70s that saw publication of some of his most celebrated, including “Trucks,” “The Mangler,” and “Battleground,” King gave us “The Boogeyman,” a riff on perhaps the classic nightmare monster. The story is excellent, depicting the titular menace attacking a family and picking it apart person by person. It’s a nasty, fun little story. Adapting it to a feature film, director Rob Savage (Host) keeps some of that, but not quite enough to make it stand out.

Story goes, in 2018 A Quiet Place screenwriting partners Scott Beck and Bryan Woods optioned the King story. After loads of Hollywood production nonsense, which saw other writers come on and leave, the eventual script comes to us from Beck, Woods, and Mark Heyman whose previous feature films are co-writing 2010’s Black Swan and co-writing 2014’s The Skeleton Twins. End of list. Directing duties fell to Rob Savage, the British filmmaker who made a splash in 2020 with the hour-long, shot-on-Zoom horror movie Host. The result feels a bit like A Quiet Place but in a house, with a bit of mental health stuff thrown in.

The movie follows the Harper family; father Will Harper (Chris Messina), a psychiatrist, is trying to solo parent his teenage daughter Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and elementary-age daughter Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) following the sudden death of their mother. Will has, as yet, been unable to open up to Sadie about his feelings, leaving her to mostly cope alone. One day, a disturbed man named Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) comes into Harper’s home office and wants to tell him about the deaths of his children, seemingly at the hands of an unseen shadow force. Oops, now the monster wants the Harper family! Dang it, Lester!

The Boogeyman boasts some solid jump scare moments and a wholly otherworldly monster. It definitely feels more alien than demonic, and it has a similar long-arm-crawly thing that the Quiet Place aliens do. Except instead of attraction to sound, this guy has aversion to light. Savage handles the tension and thing-in-the-dark chills quite adeptly. We never fully get a sense of how this creature operates, but its methods—including warping the sound of loved one’s voices—works in the mix.

The problem is the story. It takes no chances at all in the Harper family drama. We’ve seen this a million times before. Following the death of a parent, the other parent closes off while the eldest child has to be the grown up and the youngest child has nightmares. It’s Horror Movie Setup 101. As good as the actors are, the plot follows such a rote path without taking risks or adding wrinkles. Dad doesn’t believe there’s a monster, so eldest daughter has to try to save the day.

For those who haven’t read the short story, it entirely focuses on Billings relaying the horrifying events to the psychiatrist. That’s where all the horror truly lies as it sees a man forced to watch his children succumb to this monster. That portion of the movie is incredibly brief and the rest feels so underwhelming. It’s like a bit of Insidious; a scosh of Poltergeist; even a little Haunting of Hill House. It never branches out into its own thing.

And I think its biggest failing is it doesn’t go as hard as last year’s Smile which attacked the mixture of demonic curse and mental health/trauma so much more effectively. The Boogeyman isn’t bad, it’s fine. It has a couple of nifty sequences, some good scares. It’s just nothing like as scary as it ought to be. It pulls too many punches, tries to explain too much and not enough. The monster in the closet, under the bed, in the basement—we’ve seen it all before. Without the punch of King’s original prose or macabre sensibility, it’s little more than a passing shiver.

The Boogeyman hits theaters on June 2.

The Boogeyman (PG-13) ⭐ (2.7 of 5)

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Stephen King’s IT has haunted us since 1986. But most recently, IT and IT: Chapter Two directed by Andy Muschietti really captivated popular imagination. The devious Pennywise and his red balloon caused a stir among die-hard horror fans and casual viewers. And now, we’re heading back to Derry for more of that specific world. The newly coined streamer Max (formerly HBO Max) has officially greenlit and ordered Welcome To Derry, an IT prequel series from Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs. And now we know who will star in Welcome to Derry and when it will arrive on our screens.

The platform recently revealed that Welcome to Derry‘s cast will include Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, and James Remar. According to Deadline, Madeleine Stowe and Stephen Rider have also come aboard in recurring guest and series regular roles, respectively. Additionally, the Pennywise series will officially arrive in 2024 on Max.

According to TV Line, Andy Muschietti will also direct several episodes of the series, including its first. The publication reports the HBO IT series will be set in the ’60s. It will delve into the origins of Derry’s curse and, presumably, Pennywise the Clown. The HBO Max show will eventually lead to the first IT film.

It’s not clear whether we’d see Pennywise become the main character of the Welcome to Derry prequel show. But we wouldn’t mind seeing Bill Skarsgård step into the role once more. Though, for now, it doesn’t seem like he’ll have any involvement.

Skarsgård shared the following about the IT prequel with Jake’s Takes:

As of now, I’m not currently involved in it… If someone else gets to do it, my advice would be: Do it your own. Make it your own. Have fun with it… What I thought was so pleasurable about that character was how incredibly abstract he was.

We do, however, have a look at first look at the set of the series.

We’ll just have to see what else lies in store for Pennywise and Derry.

Originally published on February 23, 2023.

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Hold onto your hats, kids. Ti West’s Pearl hasn’t even fully released in theaters yet, but already, there’s more to come from the director and his X series of movies. Yes, A24 has officially greenlit MaXXXine, the third movie in the bonkers horror franchise from the director. And we have our first look at Mia Goth reprising her role as the titular Maxine alongside Halsey!

We don’t know when this film will come out just yet; however, you can already watch a teaser trailer for MaXXXine below. The X horror movie delight never stops.

According to a release, Ti West will write and direct MaXXXine. A synopsis for MaXXXine shares:

The film follows Maxine (Goth), after the events of X, as the sole survivor who continues her journey towards fame setting out to make it as an actress in 1980s Los Angeles.

We love a sole survivor, that’s for sure. And we love Ti West’s horror movies even more. Although MaXXXine‘s trailer doesn’t reveal much to us, we do know that it’s “coming soon.” Well, we guess now we won’t have to wave goodbye to the franchise indefinitely after we watch Pearl.

As for the rest of MaXXXine‘s cast, it is finally coming together. Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Lily Collins, Halsey, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon have come aboard the film. Their roles have not yet been revealed.

For now, the second movie in the X franchise, Pearl, is available to watch “It is a prequel set decades before the grisly events of X, Mia Goth returns as the future psycho-biddy Pearl, here a starry-eyed farm girl with a short fuse and a deadly ambition.” As you get excited by the prospect of MaXXXine, don’t forget to check out our review of Pearl, here. And our review of X, here. It is a Mia Goth-full autumn, and we absolutely love it.

We can’t wait to see what X‘s third movie has in stock for us. If we had to guess, we’d say… something bloody, chaotic, but absolutely incredible. After all, what’s bloodier than an actress trying to make it in LA? Here’s to you MaXXXine.

Originally published September 13, 2022.

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The Scream franchise’s impact on horror is undeniable. Scream (1996) ushered in a new era of the genre, inspiring a slate of teen ensemble films full of meta-commentary and gore. Sidney Prescott is now in the “Iconic Final Girl” pantheon alongside Laurie Strode and Nancy Thompson. And Ghostface’s ever-popular mask, ominous silhouette, and catchphrases span multiple generations of fans. There are a lot of things about the Scream films that get two knives up from horror fans (myself included); however, there’s an aspect of this franchise that, until recently, continued to be problematic. The history of Black characters in the Scream films is full of untapped potential, cringy stereotypes, and overall lackluster character development. But, there’s also a spark of a promising future. Let’s take a trip down horror memory lane to see what it means to be Black in the Scream universe.

Backgrounders Only… and That’s Okay (Scream 1996) 

Wait, what?! Were there actually Black people in the first Scream film?! Yes, indeed. The reason you don’t remember any of them is because they barely pass muster as people. Almost every Black person you see is a background character. There’s a photographer taking pictures of the school when Sid and Tatum are walking inside and discussing the previous night’s murders. A Black kid hands Sid’s teacher a note that prompts her to call Sidney to the office. And a couple of kids in Sid’s class and in the hallways are Black.

But, the only Black person who speaks in this film is a reporter. She holds up the Ghostface mask and says it is what the killer is wearing while pondering when these murders will come to an end. And you know what? It’s actually not a terrible thing that Black folks aren’t a factor in this movie. Sid’s entire friend circle either died or was shot (hello, Randy). And at least no Black people died just for dying’s sake or sacrificed themselves for a white person. So… kind of a win for us but a loss for representation in general?  

Maureen, Phil, Hallie, and Joel (Scream 2) 

It seems that someone got the message about how, up until the ’90s, a lot of mainstream horror would exclude Black folks from the story. How do we know this? Well, the opening scene for Scream 2 features two new characters Maureen and Phil, a couple at the movies to see Stab. Maureen brings up this point as a reason why she doesn’t care for the genre in general. Sadly, Maureen and Phil quickly fall as casualties to Ghostface, making them the first two kills of the movie. Imagine that. The first two significant Black people in the franchise die within minutes.

Unlike Casey Becker, who at least had a tangential relationship with Sidney as a classmate and Stu’s ex-girlfriend, neither of them are connected to her at all. We discover later that they were targeted because of their names, which fell into the pattern of victims from the original killings. And that is a plot thread that literally goes nowhere. Hate to see it. It feels like Phil and Maureen only existed to feed into the “Black folks die first/early” trope.

Now, when it comes to Hallie, there’s so much untapped potential here that it is sickening. In the film, she’s Sidney’s roommate and a psych major who wants to pledge a multicultural sorority. She’s also weirdly dismissive of Sidney’s trauma despite her interest in psychology. We see Hallie quite often and Elise Neal adds a lot of flair to her character. Who doesn’t love her “Did you get that on film?!” line after Sid punched Gail (again)?

However, Hallie still doesn’t feel like a fully developed character, and her relationship with Sid is surface-level at best. Sure, they don’t have to be best friends just because they are roommates but something about their connection feels off. Sadly, Hallie also dies in this film… and it is indirectly Sidney’s fault. (Sidenote: the scene of them escaping that car is one of the best and most intense scenes in the franchise.) Instead of listening to her very wise roommate’s advice to “get the f*ck outta here” after barely surviving a Ghostface attack, Sid wants to go back and unmask the killer. Of course, he’s not there and ends up jumping out and killing Hallie in front of Sid.

The saddest part about this is that Hallie could have had a much more significant role in the film. An earlier “dummy script” actually had Hallie as one of the killers alongside Sid’s boyfriend Derek, whom she was having a secret relationship with, Mickey, and Mrs. Loomis. While having yet another one of Sid’s boyfriends wouldn’t have worked no matter what, it would have been interesting to explore Hallie as a killer. Dewey and Randy have a conversation about her potentially being “Candyman’s daughter,” with Dewey rightfully pointing out that serial killers are usually white men.

So, making Hallie the killer would have been a wild plot twist. I am 100% here for more Black women killers, tbh. Perhaps her interest in psychology is what led her to want to get close to Sidney so she could study a survivor’s mind. Or, in the vein of American Horror Story: 1984, she was partnering with a killer to understand them but took things a little too far. Truly a missed opportunity. 

The final Black person in this film is one of my favorites in the franchise: Joel Martin. Despite having a successful book that spawned a movie, Gale can’t find a cameraman and hires Joel. The entire time, Joel is questioning if he should be there because, well, there’s a killer on the loose. Gale is frustratingly abrasive to him and he eventually does what Hallie and Sid should have done after the accident: got the f*ck out of town.

Duane Martin’s role is small but he’s a comedic delight every time he is onscreen. He certainly gets more development than Kenny the cameraman and survives by simply getting away from Ghostface’s targets. Hilariously, he returns at the end, wanting to work with Gale again now that she isn’t being chased by a killer. Love him. However, when you think about all the Black people in Scream 2, the message this film gives is sad. It suggests that the only way a Black person can be safe is to leave or not exist. We do see more overall diversity in the background thanks to a new location, but what good does that do if you kill all the Black folks?

Tyson Fox (Scream 3) 

Scream 3 is the most chaotic sequel in the franchise. It’s like two movies in one. The first is a horror comedy Scooby-Doo murder mystery with Gail, Dewey, and a gang of annoying actors who die. The second is a horror drama with Sidney as she discovers the truth behind it all, including the abuse her mother endured years ago. And, as its sole killer, Roman is basically a supernatural being because how the HELL did he do all that alone?!

Anyway, if fans thought any Black character in this film would fare better than the ones in Scream 2, they were wrong. There is Tyson Fox, a Black actor playing the role of Ricky in Stab 3. His comedic relief is frequently funny but as the film progresses it becomes more like a “joking Black guy” caricature. In fact, right before he dies, he says, “you muthaf*cka” for no good reason. Sigh. And, to make things worse, he’s the only significant Black character in Scream 3. There are some background randoms, including a couple of police officers who come to aid Sid after she’s attacked on set, but that is it. And honestly, there was no reason for Tyson to be there except to have a funny Black guy in the mix. Booooo. Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. 

Deputy Perkins (Scream 4)

Warning: The above video contains graphic content.

Ten years later and nothing changed when it came to Black characters in the world of Scream. Anthony Anderson’s deputy character Perkins is basically Tyson Fox as a police officer. He’s less like a real person and more of an odd character who also makes jokes until he dies. And, he is the only significant Black person in this film as well, sort of mirroring the original Scream movie that suggests Woodsboro is a very white town. 

Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin (Scream 2022) 

Well, well, well. It only took 25 years for the franchise to finally introduce a solid Black character who plays a vital role in the narrative and also survives it all. That person is Mindy Meeks-Martin, the child of Martha Meeks (and maybe Joel Martin… more on that later) and a horror aficionado like her uncle Randy. Mindy gives us information and makes us laugh while also keeping a pragmatic outlook on their situation. She can be quite dark at times but we get flashes of her heart. And, her queerness is not made to be something taboo or shocking, but simply a part of who she is. Mindy nearly gets taken down in the third act but thankfully, she lives to fight another day!

There’s still much to explore with Mindy that this film couldn’t do. To be fair, Scream 2022 was introducing an entire new cast to carry the torch forward while also bringing Gale, Dewey, and Sid back into the mix. But Scream VI puts her and Chad Meeks-Martin towards the forefront. In this film, Chad isn’t quite as prominent as Mindy and his character certainly fits into the common “high school jock” trope. And he’s not the brightest crayon in the box, going outside in the dark to look for Liv.

Mindy and Chad-Meeks Martin and Brooks (Scream VI)

Prior to this film’s release, my big fear was that Chad or Mindy would either die in the opening scene like Cotton or in some sacrificial way to save Sam and/or Tara. Thankfully, neither of those things happened. Scream VI makes Chad and Mindy half of the leading “Core Four” alongside the Carpenter sisters. In terms of overall Black representation, Scream VI might be the best out of the franchise considering its character development of Chad.

He goes from being the stereotypical jock to the foundation that holds this group together, dishing out encouragement and wisdom when needed. His blossoming romance with Tara, “muscle” against Ghostface and creepy guys, and delightful comedic relief make him an all-around MVP. Things look frightening for Chad when he’s stabbed by not one but two Ghostfaces (a truly heartbreaking scene that is, ahem, overkill) but he’s apparently immortal because he survives. And you know what? I am okay with that plot armor because white protagonists get it all the time. 

Mindy also gets a lot more shine in this film, including some very intense scenes with Ghostface. Scream VI fleshes her character out a bit more, making her more of a person who actually feels feelings. However, her character also doesn’t make sense at times because it leans a little too hard into “horror expert” trope. For example, her entire scene about the rules (which includes some very spot on accusations) in front of the whole group is wild considering she absolutely knows that at least one person there is the killer. Seems like a better conversation to have among the Core Four considering they barely know these people. Both characters get sidelined for the final showdown; however, it makes sense considering Sam and Tara are the main protagonists. So, the Meeks twins survive yet another film! 

However, this film is not without its faults. First, there’s not a lot of Black peripheral representation despite it taking place in literal NYC. Unlike Woodsboro, there are hella Black people all over the place. Then again, that might be a good thing considering how Ghostface was killing people much more indiscriminately in this film.

There’s also Gale’s boyfriend Brooks, a Black character whose name we only know because it is listed on IMDb and in the Scream VI credits. He appears for a split second, saying approximately one sentence before Ghostface quickly dispatches him in Gale’s apartment. We know nothing about him nor their relationship and no one seems to even care about his death. He’s simply someone who adds to the body count, which is not surprising to anyone. It’s a shame because he was very, very sexy and possibly an interesting person.

Black Character Representation in Scream VII (If We Get It)

It seems pretty inevitable that Scream VII is coming our way. And there’s no reason why Chad and Mindy wouldn’t be a part of it, even if it is to a lesser degree. At this point, both of them have gone through their own respective traumas and the franchise could dig into how they are coping with that. Mindy’s sarcasm and humor will not heal the pain of watching her girlfriend’s brutal death. And poor Chad has been stabbed approx. 156 times so there’s a lot of physical, mental, and emotional fallout behind that experience. They can show this and still ensure that the Carpenter sisters are the proverbial stars of this franchise.

Perhaps we can dig into Chad and Mindy’s lives more and find out who their father is. Their last name hints at Joel Martin and it is not impossible. Joel is a few years older than Martha Meeks, who had the twins in her early 20s. But Martin is a common last name so it could be anyone. Maybe we can see Joel as their uncle (to replace the one they never got to know) and something caused him to come back into the picture. He technically counts as a legacy character, after all. Actor Duane Martin was rumored to return for Scream (2022) so maybe he can come back. (Not if they are gonna just kill him, though.) 

Until then, we can only speculate what will happen next. Thankfully, the Scream franchise seems to be on a better path in terms of Black representation with the Meeks-Martin siblings at the forefront. Let’s remain hopeful and see where this enduring story goes next.

Originally published on January 20, 2023.

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Evil Dead Rise is at the crossroads of contemporary horror. Typically, horror cinema has worked by stimulating its audience physically, psychologically, or any combination thereof. Splatter films invite the squeamish among us to keel over and feel sick, while science fiction horror functions as an advertisement for staying home. But Evil Dead Rise marries both the existential horror popularized over the last ten years with the chaotic, physical violence of the Evil Dead franchise. The film is a rickety, wooden theme park ride, and is all the more fun because of it. 

The Evil Dead movies have, largely, based themselves in stimulating their audience however they can. The campiness of Sam Raimi’s original trilogy (Evil Dead, The Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness) mixed hilarity with gore, powered by Raimi’s distinct, no-holds-barred directorial voice and Bruce Campbell’s enthusiastic Ash Williams. We’re invited to laugh while we scream. Fede Álvarez’s 2013 Evil Dead dropped the comedy of the original films to double down on gore, executed with impressive practical effects. 

With this in mind, Evil Dead Rise has a lot to measure up to. From Irish director/writer Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground), Evil Dead Rise follows guitar technician Beth (Lily Sullivan) as she visits her sister, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), in Los Angeles. Ellie is a single mother living in a high rise with her three children, Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and Kassie (Nell Fisher). After an earthquake in their building uncovers the cursed Book of the Dead, also known as the Necronomicon, a demonic force possesses Ellie, forcing the remaining family members to fight for their lives. 

Cronin’s thoughtful writing and measured direction, coupled with powerful performances from Sutherland, Sullivan, and Echols in particular, makes Evil Dead Rise an utterly terrifying thrill ride. While not as gory as the 2013 film, the film’s scares are like arrows carefully nocked and released, aimed squarely at the audience’s vulnerabilities. The film’s directorial precision is one of its strongest areas. Cronin clearly knows when to hold back and when to let all hell break loose. This helps keep Evil Dead Rise from feeling too overloaded with its attempts to scare us. After all, the horror set pieces can only work in contrast to safe, character-building scenes. Without giving too much away, the film’s scenes in a high-rise elevator will have the same effect that Jaws had on beaches in the summer of 1975. 

Evil Dead Rise benefits from being both disturbing and terrifying. It’s a rare balance that makes it memorable against other contemporary demonic possession films. It operates like The Exorcist, but for mothers. Considering Cronin’s previous film also dealt with the relationship between a mother and child, Evil Dead Rise’s thematic focus fits expertly within his wheelhouse. 

While demon-possessed mothers is by no means a new idea to horror, Evil Dead Rise succeeds in recreating what made Reagan’s possession in The Exorcist so disturbing. Like with Reagan, we fully understand who Ellie was before this horrible force entered her life. This makes her later transformation both tragic and terrifying, because we already have an emotional foundation for her character. Sutherland’s gnarly, teeth-gnashing performance as the Deadite Ellie sells this unadulterated evil even further. It’s absolutely one of the film’s highlights. Additionally, Davies, Echols, and Fisher play off each other so well as Ellie’s children that we feel just as terrified, and disturbed, as they do when they see their mother become a monster. 

Given how many horror films about possession currently exist, this is no easy feat. Evil Dead Rise vanquishes its lesser contemporaries by building the humanity of its characters before ripping them to shreds. While this seems like a simple enough task, it is frustratingly rare to see in American studio horror films. Gone are the days where Evil Dead’s characters make the stupidest decisions possible, and act like fodder for Cabin in the Woods-type commentary. Here, Evil Dead Rise takes Evil Dead’s extreme physical violence a step further by adding emotional violence that will leave audiences feeling battered, but not hopeless. 

That said, some fans of Álvarez’s 2013 film may find Cronin’s thematic focus to be an obstacle impeding them from their gory spectacles. Cronin’s film certainly doesn’t have the same level of nastiness as its predecessor. I found that to be a boon, considering that there are children in this story. Thankfully, Cronin wisely skirts misogynist tropes that have bogged down horror cinema’s representation of motherhood, making Evil Dead Rise a refreshing entry for this decade. While motherhood is the entry point into the film’s world of horrors, it is never at the expense of the characters, or their bodies. Evil Dead has a rocky history of violating cisgender women’s bodies for spectacle, but Evil Dead Rise abandons this for good. Given that it’s 2023, it’s about time. 

Evil Dead Rise may tread familiar territory, but its strong character relationships, directing, and thematic focus make it a welcome entry into one of horror’s longest running franchises. Its commitment to both emotional horror and thrilling gore showcases how studio horror films can still exhibit the scrappy spirit of independent flicks. Long live the Evil Dead. 

Evil Dead Rise ⭐ (5 of 5)

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The Boogeyman is a horror icon. It’s a supernatural being that lurks under children’s beds and in the recesses of dark closets. Perhaps it is somewhere in the corner of their eye, causing the hairs to stand up on the back of their necks. But this mythical character can also get adults in its clutches, too. He will drag you into his lair of despair, never to be seen or heard from again. Or, he will simply get into your head to the point that you can only focus on his looming presence. So it only makes sense that Stephen King would have a short story, aptly titled “The Boogeyman,” about this infamous entity. Now, that ‘70s-era fright is coming to live in The Boogeyman, an upcoming movie with a very ominous trailer. 

Yellowjackets star Sophie Thatcher is student Sadie Harper, a high school student living with her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) and their therapist father Will (Chris Messina). The family recently lost its matriarch and is all dealing with their pain separately, but that is the least of their problems. You see, one of Will’s patients came to their home and left the very unwanted houseguest behind. You know, a creepy and terrifying entity that loves to feed on the suffering of grieving families. Perfection.

And we all know those kinds of monsters do not want to leave until everyone is dead. The Boogeyman story and its trailer certainly amp up the terror. The connection between grief and horror, along with small flashes of its titular monster and sketchy lighting, make for a frightening narrative. King’s short story ends with a shocking twist that we won’t give away. But we can say that this movie will probably be one hell of a twisted ride. And it is always nice to see one of our beloved Yellowjackets girls onscreen. 

The Boogeyman will hit theaters on June 2, 2023.

Originally published on January 30, 2023.

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Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. (She’s All That, Star Wars: Rebels, Scooby-Doo) sits down with Nerdist’s Adam Murray to talk about his new podcast, finally watching I Know What You Did Last Summer for the first time, and his lifelong love of horror.

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Dracula is perhaps one of the most enduring horror icons of all-time. The titular character of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, he is the prototype for most, if not all, vampires that followed in his bloodsucking wake. There are countless books, shows, and movies about or involving Dracula, including Nic Cage’s Renfield. And there’s yet another story coming our way; however, this one is certainly taking a fun approach straight from the original novel: Dracula at sea. The Last Voyage of the Demeter’s trailer is a chilling look into a voyage that is anything but fantastic. 

The Last Voyage of the Demeter’s synopsis is also wild: 

Based on a single chilling chapter from Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula, The Last Voyage of the Demeter tells the terrifying story of the merchant ship Demeter, which was chartered to carry private cargo—fifty unmarked wooden crates—from Carpathia to London. 

Strange events befall the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, stalked each night by a merciless presence onboard the ship. When the Demeter finally arrives off the shores of England, it is a charred, derelict wreck. There is no trace of the crew. 

In case you’re wondering which Dracula chapter that The Last Voyage of the Demeter is based on, it is “The Captain’s Log.” The film stars Corey Hawkins of The Walking Dead fame (poor Heath) as Clemens, a doctor who boards the ill-fated Demeter. Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, and David Dastmalchian join him to round out the main cast. Surely someone survives or at least documents these events, right? Right?! Horror happenings in confined spaces is usually a good time, so I will check this film out.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter will hit theaters on August 11. Long live Count Dracula, whether he is on land or at sea.

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Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller sits down with Nerdist’s Rotem Rusak for the show’s 10-year anniversary to talk about the highlights and challenges of making the show, its possible future, the Fannibal community, and Hannibal’s lasting impact and legacy a decade later!

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The Scream franchise is officially back in business with Scream (2022) and its quick sequel, Scream VI. All the films go in and out of streaming availability so there are chances to rewatch them in all their Ghostface glory. And, while we love a good marathon watch, sometimes you just want a comprehensive look at a franchise for quick references. It’s also a great place to send your friends if they are just now getting into the wild world of Scream. So, let’s dive into what you need to know about the Scream universe so far and where it could go next.

Jump to: General Scream History // The Overall Premise // Scream // Scream 2 // Scream 3 // Scream 4 // Scream (2022) // Scream VI // The Stab Franchise // Scream Tenets and Theories // Scream VII Thoughts

A Bit of Scream History

In the early ‘90s, Kevin Williamson was an aspiring screenwriter with a couple of small acting credits to his name. After learning about the Gainesville Ripper (more on that real-life Scream history here), he wrote a mini script under the title Scary Movie. The story followed a woman who gets a phone call from someone who breaks into her home and kills her. Williamson soon developed it into a feature length project, infusing it with references from his fave horror flicks like Halloween, Friday the 13^th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and When a Stranger Calls.

He eventually struck a deal with the then-new Dimension Films. Wes Craven got involved as the director and Scream was on its way to being a cornerstone in horror history. The first film hit in December 1996, typically a dead month for non-Christmas fare at the time, bringing its whodunit mystery and chilling kills to audiences. It broke the horror mold by casting already familiar names like Drew Barrymore, Courteney Cox, and, to a lesser degree, rising actress Neve Campbell. Scream is credited with revitalizing mainstream horror and setting off a string of teen ensemble horror flicks for decades to come. And, it was the inspiration for the Scary Movie parody film franchise.

What Is the Overall Story in the Scream Movies?

The first four films in the Scream franchise follow Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her cyclical battle with a bevy of serial killers. She’s the main player, a now-iconic final girl, and the real MVP. The murder of Sidney’s mother is the beginning of a revenge plot to kill and/or frame Sidney for various reasons. There is a rotating cast of people around her but two mainstays, Deputy—and later Sheriff—Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and tabloid reporter/salacious author Gale Weathers (later Gale Weathers Riley, played by Courteney Cox) are by her side throughout these ordeals.

Now, the franchise is in a new era with new leading characters. Scream (2022) does include Sidney and Gale; however, the story now centers around Sam and Tara Carpenter, portrayed by Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, respectively. Sam is the new Sidney Prescott with Ghostface setting their sights on her, her sister, and her sister’s group of friends. Sidney will not be in the next Scream film (a first for the franchise) but Gale will make an appearance, which makes sense considering it takes place in New York City where she currently lives and works.

Scream (1996): The Beginning

Scream takes place in fictional Woodsboro, an idyllic Northern California town where teenage Sidney “Sid” Prescott lives with her father. This film is all about tipping its hat to the genre’s predecessors, including its now classic opening scene with Barrymore’s Casey Becker as she plays a terrifying phone game with a charismatic killer. The exchange ends with her and her boyfriend, Steve Orth, dying at Casey’s house. The killer wears a costume with a long white face with hollowed eyes and mouth and a cheap black robe. A knife is the deadly weapon of choice.

Of course, we get the foundation for our main character. Sidney lost her mom Maureen Prescott in a grisly rape/murder a year prior. She testified against local “sleezeball” Cotton Weary, who claims he had a consensual sexual relationship with Maureen, and he’s on death row. Sid is also trying to parse through her relationship with Billy Loomis, a Johnny Depp lookalike who keeps pressuring her about sex.

After a couple of close calls (literal phone calls and in-person attacks) with the killer, Sid eventually ends up at Billy’s best friend Stu Macher’s house for a party. She goes alongside her best friend (and Stu’s girlfriend) Tatum and close buddy/horror movie geek Randy, who has an unrequited crush on Sidney. Things go very awry when the party thins out and the killer shows up just as Tatum’s older brother Dewey wanders off with Gale Weathers to investigate.

Ya see, Gale and Sidney have bad blood because Gale wrote a book about Maureen’s murder, calling Sidney a liar and saying Cotton Weary was framed. Anyway, Sidney gets chased around, Tatum dies, and she eventually discovers the shocking truth: Billy and Stu are the killers and they killed her mom, too. Why? Because Maureen had an affair with Billy’s dad, causing his parents’ split. Sidney, with help from Gale and Randy (sort of), kills them both and lives another day. Dewey gets stabbed in the back yet survives and Sidney’s dad is cool too. Roll credits.

Although the antagonist is always referred to as “The Killer” in this film and subsequent ones, Tatum calls him Ghostface prior to her death. (The story behind the Scream mask is interesting if you wanna learn more.) While not used within the films until Scream 4, Ghostface is the commonly used name by the fandom and franchise promotional materials. Randy also catches fire with fans, taking our place as the horror aficionado who is pretty aware that he’s living in a real-life scary movie. He even goes so far as naming the rules of survival, including don’t drink or have sex and that the killer is never really dead the first time.

Scream really breaks the mold in a few ways. Sidney starts off as the typical “final girl,” a sweet virgin who makes good grades and stays out of trouble. But we get to peel back her layers, revealing someone who will drop an “f-bomb,” punch a grown woman, have sex when she chooses to, and shoot someone in the head. Her “goodness” doesn’t determine if she’s worth saving unlike some of her predecessors. She fights for her survival all the way, having a ton of autonomy over her decisions and actions.

The revelation of two killers was an absolutely brilliant twist. Billy and Stu aren’t as slick, calculating, physically imposing, nor superhuman as many other classic horror villains. The duo gets their asses kicked, trip and fall, and have a rather clumsy plan that unravels due to their own ego and negligence. It makes Scream feel very much rooted in reality, which only adds to its terror.

Scream 2 (1997): The Plot Thickens

We back! Sidney is now at Windsor College in Ohio, living her life as a drama student and trying to stay low key. That’s kinda hard, though, because Gale’s book about the Woodsboro murders is the source material for Stab, a horror movie. Randy is also inexplicably at the same college as, you guessed it, a film student. Sid has a new crew, including her token Black girl roommate Hallie, pretty frat boyfriend Derek, and “freaky Tarantino” (Randy’s words, not mine) film student Mickey. The murder of Phil and Maureen, two Windsor College students at a Stab screening (just had to kill the Black folks, huh?), puts Sid on edge and brings both Dewey and Gale into the picture. The former is there to protect/support Sidney while the latter hopes she can get fodder for her next book.

Speaking of Gale, she has her own entourage of sorts with her cameraman Joel (who replaces the cameraman killed in the first film) and Debbie Salt, a local reporter and Gale fan. Once again, Sid does not have a good time. Ghostface chases her on a stage, kills her security detail, Hallie, Randy, and eventually Derek, and she has to deal with Cotton Weary. He’s exonerated for murder and wants her to help him capitalize on their unfortunate connection.

Dewey and Gale reconcile after she wrote poorly about him in her book. They go investigating (again) and Dewey gets stabbed (again). Gale barely escapes. Joel skips town because he’s a Black guy who is not trying to die from white drama.

The showdown on the drama stage reveals that Mickey (whom you almost forget exists) is the killer! He wants to “blame it on the movies” and have a big trial where he gets away with murder. And, bigger shock, Debbie Salt is the second killer. But she’s not Debbie. She’s Mrs. Loomis, Billy’s mom who wants revenge on Sidney for killing her son. She kills Mickey to frame him but Cotton thwarts her efforts to kill Gale and Sid. The thrio make it out alive along with Dewey who is possibly immortal (or just has great plot armor).

There are a few things to catch onto here, including the fact that Sidney gets a necklace with Derek’s Greek letters that she holds onto. In fact, we see her wearing it in the next installment. The impact of this film’s murders is a lot higher for Sidney. She feels responsible for Hallie and Derek’s deaths due to her poor decision making and general distrust of people. And losing Randy means her entire friend group from high school is dead.

She also has a terse truce of sorts with Cotton, allowing him to be the media hero because damn more of her friends are dead and sis is tired. The growing romantic relationship between Gale and Dewey gains its footing here too. In the first film, she was more concerned about the story than his well being at the end. This time, she’s in the ambulance with him. Scream 2 also sets the in-universe Stab films in motion, which we will talk about more later.

Scream 3 (2000): The Concluding Chapter of a Trilogy (or not..)

Scream 3 was supposed to be the end of this franchise but that was obviously a lie. The first person we see isn’t a stranger but Cotton Weary. He’s living the high life in Hollywood with a talk show, money, and a role in a Stab 3. Unfortunately, Cotton and his girlfriend become the opening kills for a Ghostface who’s asking about Sidney. She’s living solo in the woods in a nice cabin with a dog and working for a crisis hotline under a fake name. Only Dewey and her dad know her whereabouts.

Cotton’s murder brings Hollywood Detective Mark Kincaid to Gale, who is doing lectures on how to be a heartless journalist. She’s somehow “the expert” he needs because he lacks competence and research skills of his own. They run into Dewey, who is a consultant on the Stab film set and mad that Gale left him for fame… again.

This is where things get squirrely. There are film actor counterparts for our main people. You have film Gale (Jennifer), Dewey (Tom), and of course, Sid (Angelina) along with other characters. The killer starts whacking off actors, bringing the realization that he—or she… or they—is killing people in the order of a film script. And each crime scene has photos of a young Maureen Prescott, claiming that her real killer isn’t Billy or Stu.

Real Sid comes to Hollywood after Ghostface calls her, reunites with Gale and Dewey, and doesn’t notice Kincaid’s borderline obsession with her. Things go very Scooby-Doo with the Gales investigating, a house blowing up, Dewey taking advice from Randy’s pre-death video given to him by Randy’s sister Martha, and Sid visiting a replica of her childhood bedroom.

Meanwhile, Stab 3 film director Roman is concerned about his cast (and film) dying while studio executive Milton doesn’t seem to care… until we discover his truth. Turns out Maureen did a few low-budget Hollywood horror films when she was young and ended up in a gang rape situation at Milton’s swanky home. Oof. Later on, the killer lures all the remaining cast, Dewey, and Gale to Roman’s party at that same home.

He dispatches everyone except Sid’s friends, whom he uses as bait for Sid. Kincaid shows up, gets his ass kicked, and Sid eventually discovers the killer is Roman, who appeared to be dead earlier. He reveals that he’s Maureen’s son, the product of her sexual assault who is mad that Sid got the family he was refused. Roman gathered evidence of Maureen’s affair with Mr. Loomis, giving it to Billy and setting off this chain of murder. He tries to kill Sid but fails, with Dewey eventually shooting him. In the end, Sid, Dewey, Gale, and Kincaid chill at her house and she’s sure her life’s horrors are behind her.

This film is pretty divisive among the fandom for a few reasons. First, there’s a lack of the main protagonist. It’s almost like Scream 3 could have been a spinoff flick about Gale and Dewey going on an investigative adventure with a ragtag team of dumb, unlikable actors. In reality, Neve Campbell had a tight schedule so her filming window was small. It never made sense to me because, well, if this was truly supposed to be the last film, then why not make the necessary shifts to tell Sid’s story as completely as possible?

In fact, it’s like she’s in her own separate dark movie. The revelation about her mom and Roman is disturbing as hell and doesn’t fit the tone of everything else at all. And, many fans thought Roman was an odd choice for the lone killer. First, there’s no physical way one person could do everything he did. This is an interesting point considering an early script called for two killers. (That version of the film featured Angelina, Sidney’s movie counterpart, as Roman’s girlfriend and accomplice. But the script didn’t stick.) However, filming didn’t seem to account for this change so it still plays out much like a two person job. He does A LOT and racks up a hefty body count.

Second, it’s weird for Roman to have no real connection to Sidney at all. Yes, they are half-siblings but the first time Sid ever shares a room with Roman is when he reveals himself to be the killer. Sure, we never saw her with Billy’s mom either. But we know that they had multiple interactions prior to the first film’s events. Either way, Scream 3 is an oft-quoted and discussed film among fans.

Scream 4 (2011): Live for the Applause

A new decade and millennium calls for new things. Scream 4 boasts the ultimate meta opening of Stab characters watching people die before dying while real people watch them die and then die. Lost yet? Hang on. We meet Jill Roberts, Sidney’s much younger cousin through her mom’s sister Kate. Where the hell did Kate come from? I don’t know. Sid’s father died from an illness and now she lives elsewhere. Since the last film, she’s taken back her power and written a best-selling book about her life.

Meanwhile, Dewey is now the Sheriff of Woodsboro and his deputy, Judy Hicks, seems to have a crush on him. Odd stuff considering she’s a former classmate of Sidney’s. He’s married to Gale, who is struggling with her career and identity at this point. She’s down so bad that she later works with high school horror club kids to figure out the rules of remakes in hopes of discovering the killer.

Sid comes home to promote her new book and the killing starts, targeting Jill and her friends. Her crew includes Sid/Tatum/Randy mashup Kirby, film geek Charlie, creepy ex-boyfriend Trevor, and neighbor Olivia. A few people bite the dust, including Aunt Kate and Olivia. A “Stabathon” watch leads to an attack on Gale and eventually, Sid has a showdown with Ghostface, discovering it is Jill and Charlie behind it. They kill Trevor and Kirby, hoping to frame the former for their crimes. Jill wants Sidney’s fame so bad that she stabs Sidney and comically beats herself up to become the new “final girl.”

Dimension Films

For the first time, Gale actually figures out who the killer is and works with Dewey and Sidney to subdue Jill for good. Sidney also slips in a great line: “don’t f*** with the original.” Weirdly, Deputy Judy Hicks is there but gets knocked out until it’s all over. And that’s where we left things.

Scream 4 really leans into the impact of modern social media and attention seeking fame. It was right around the time when Facebook, Twitter, and other sites launched apps and people began to get internet famous. Interestingly, Jill’s motivations, albeit extreme, are not that far from reality. People have done deadly and dangerous stuff for the sake of fame and applause.

Scream (2022): Toxic Fandom and Requel Chaos

Finally, we arrive at the latest film! Ten years after Scream (2022), we meet Tara, a Woodsboro student who is attacked by someone wearing a Ghostface mask. Unlike Casey Becker, she survives the brutal attack, which leads to her estranged older sister Sam coming home. Sam brings her boyfriend Richie, who is not happy about being in a town known for murder. She reunites with her sister and her group of friends, a few whom happen to have connections to some Scream characters.

Mindy (a horror nerd) and Chad Meeks-Martin are the niece and nephew of Randy Meeks. Wes is Judy Hicks’ son. Sprinkle in a couple others in like Tara’s close friend Amber Freeman (who hates Sam) and Liv and it is a crowd. Ghostface begins to go after a few people, including Sam, who reveals herself to be the biological daughter of Billy Loomis. (This doesn’t make timeline sense but let’s rock with it.) Oh, and she’s seeing the Ghost of Billy Past randomly as he warns her that she’s like him. Sam seeks a divorced Dewey’s help, who isn’t too keen to get involved and now spends his days isolated in a trailer home.

But he gives in and, thanks to Mindy, they discover the killer is targeting people connected to Billy and Stu. She also explains that this is a “requel,” a continuation of a narrative that sharply skews from the plot of the original. We see Stu’s nephew die, so it is Sam’s turn to go. In reality, the killings start to spread with Wes and Judy biting it. Gale and Dewey have a brief reunion but unfortunately never get their relationship back on track. In quite the heartbreaking (but not totally shocking) turn of events, Dewey dies while helping Sam and Richie save a badly injured Tara from Ghostface. This is where Sidney Prescott comes in. She wants to help Sam (awkward considering she knows Billy is her father) but Sam is like “hell nah, we leaving town.”

Of course, running away is not easy. Tara realizes she has no inhaler and wants to stop at Amber’s house to grab her spare. Amber is inexplicably having a party and happens to live in Stu Macher’s old home. Sidney and Gale track and follow them there, realizing there is something amiss. And boy is it not good. We discover that Amber and Richie are the killers, two twisted Stab fans who reject any concept of fandom being “toxic.” They met online, and decided to create a slew of real life killings and the wild narrative of Billy’s daughter killing Sidney to make the next film better. So yes, that makes Richie the worst and also a pedophile.

Editor’s Note: The following video contains NSFW language.

Sidney, Gale, and Sam (and later Tara) face Amber, who ends up getting set on fire and dying. But it is really the Sam vs. Richie fight that gets disturbing. Ghost of Billy Past shows up and points Sam towards Amber’s knife. She stabs Richie more times than anyone cares to count, embracing her serial killer legacy. Gale decides to not write about these murders so they get no shine, Sidney goes back to minding her business with her husband Mark (probably the Scream 3 guy) and kids, and Sam and Tara try to piece their lives back together.

Scream (2022) takes a stab (ha!) at toxic fandom who get wild when their demands aren’t met by creators. And, the weirdness of trying to redeem Billy was a bit much. But now we get to go on a new journey with Sam, Tara, Mindy, and Chad, the surviving four of the friend group in the next film.

Scream VI (2023): NYC Slashing and a Ghostface Family Affair

In Scream VI, we catch up with Sam, Tara, Mindy, and Chad in NYC. With the exception of Sam, the others are all college students at Blackmore University. There are new people in the mix, like Mindy’s girlfriend Anika, Chad’s roommate Ethan, Sam/Tara’s roommate Quinn, and Sam’s secret boyfriend Danny. A little over a year has passed since the previous film and once again Stab fans are up to shenanigans.

In the Scream VI opening scene, a Blackmore film professor, Laura Crane, gets killed by her student and Stab devotee Jason Carvey after he fakes a blind date with her. However, this film switches the game up on us. It turns out Jason knows Tara, whom he interacts with shortly after the murder. But Jason and his roommate Greg’s plan to kill the Carpenter sisters doesn’t happen because another Ghostface, the real one, kills both of them.

Sam is not doing well at all as she grapples with the past and online (and in person) harassment. There are rampant rumors about her being the true killer in the last Woodsboro murders. This Ghostface leaves Sam’s info at the opening scene final murder, therefore making Sam and Tara suspects in the ongoing investigation. They want to leave NYC; however, Detective Bailey, who is on the case and also Quinn’s father, says they must stay put.

Jason and Greg’s online activity was monitored by the FBI office in Atlanta, which brings Kirby Reed into the picture to aid the investigation. Of course, any Ghostface murder always brings Gale into the mix. And it makes sense because she’s been living and working in NYC for years. For some reason, Gale wrote about the last murders, which made Sam and Tara understandably upset with her. Sidney decides that this isn’t her problem, but still goes into hiding with her family for their safety.

Ghostface begins to hunt Sam and Tara, attacking them in a bodega and later in their apartment. Quinn, her random boy toy, Anika, and people at the bodega. Each scene reveals items with DNA from previous killers, piquing the interest of Kirby and Bailey, who is suspicious of her. Meanwhile, Gale discovers that Jason and Greg are renting a space that’s actually a Ghostface shrine with key items from all the murders. She brings the crew in to see it and they are shocked and reminded of Ghostface’s decades-long past. Meanwhile, Chad and Mindy continue to develop a budding romance throughout the trauma.

Ghostface gets into Gale’s apartment, taunting her on the phone and killing her boyfriend before chasing her and stabbing her multiple times. Thankfully, Sam and Tara save her but she’s in critical condition. The group decides to team up with Bailey and Kirby to lure Ghostface into the shrine to kill him (or them). But, on the subway ride there, Mindy ends up on another train. She gets stabbed by Ghostface and sent to the hospital.

They get in the shrine and Bailey calls to tell Sam that Kirby isn’t with the FBI anymore and is probably the killer. Two Ghostfaces show up and brutally attack Chad while the Carpenter sisters end up in a theater location of the building. This is where they discover that Detective Bailey, Quinn, and Ethan are not only the killers, but the father and siblings of Richie Kirsch. Yikes. The big showdown features a lot of action, including Sam donning Billy’s Ghostface costume to absolutely destroy Bailey. Tara stabs Ethan in the head and Kirby (who is shot but not dead) gives him a final blow. And, Quinn dies from a gunshot wound courtesy of Sam.

Sam’s boyfriend (who is thankfully cool… or is he?) calls the good cops to come to the scene. Mindy gets out of the hospital and we discover that Gale will survive. And, somehow Chad is an immortal who lives once again. Sam takes a long look at her father’s Ghostface mask and that’s the end of that saga.

Scream VI does a lot of new things, including the opening scene, having three killers, showing two killers in masks working together, and a Gale phone call. But there are a lot of things that line up with Scream 2. The college campus setting in another state, a vengeful parent of a Ghostface killer, and a red herring boyfriend who turns out to be cool comes to mind. But, it proves that this franchise can indeed be successful without Sidney Prescott.

The Stab Franchise: A World Within a World

There are more Stab films in the Scream universe than actual Scream movies. As of Scream (2022), there are eight Stab movies in the universe, although we get to see little if any of them. There’s a delightful Stab movie website of fan-made films that imagine what happens in this faux franchise. Apparently, the first couple of films follow Sid’s life relatively close with Tori Spelling portraying Sidney.

But, Stab 3 goes a bit rogue with scripts that have Gale Weathers dying (or being the killer), random characters coming into the fold, and nothing making sense. We see this film feature heavily in Scream 3 with that film fizzling after Roman, well, kills the whole cast. For no good reason, Stab 5 includes elements of time traveling, which Scream 3 character Jenny Randall says is the worst installment. Richie later confirms this by claiming the franchise spun out of control.

We get glimpses of Stab 6 and 7, especially in Scream 4‘s inception of an opening sequence as well as Scream (2022). In the latter, Sam’s boyfriend Richie is trying to get up to speed with Woodsboro’s deadly history by watching Stab films. We later find out the truth about his twisted fandom and disappointment that the eighth Stab film (a complete reboot of the franchise) doesn’t honor the true fans, which leads him and Amber to committing their crimes in hopes for a requel. Interestingly, Sidney is not in this film, which much be a first for the franchise.

As we see, the Stab films no longer follow the original story, much like real-life long running horror franchises do. Stab does play a very small role in Scream VI with Jason and Greg’s love for the franchise. Bailey also mentions how much Richie likes the franchise. And, we do see a bit of Stab paraphernalia in that Ghostface shrine as well. But it is not a core part of the plot, which is honestly a good thing.

Classic Tenets and Theories of Scream

There are quite a few staples in the Scream universe. The most obvious one is the franchise’s overall approach to horror. Scream is well known for being very, very meta with a human killer. Ghostface may look like an apparition but it’s always been a flesh and blood person behind those masks. Scream (2022) and Scream VI both lean towards a more menacing and ruthless take; however, he/she/they are not some super, unkillable being like Michael Myers.

Speaking of Ghostface, he mostly looks the same as the original with the exception of aesthetic upgrades to his mask. Some versions of the eyes and mouth are more curved and/or elongated but the basic design is the same. The voice changing device also looks connected to the mask now for easier use.  Mask aside, the black robe, boots, and classic knife to slice and dice complete the look.

The catchphrase “Hello, Sidney” has become a horror classic. It came from the first time Sidney speaks to the killer on the phone and continues to pop up throughout the franchise. In fact, Hello Sidney is the name of a very popular fan website dedicated to all things Scream. “Do You Like Scary Movies?” also continues to be popular among fans, too.

The use of telephones is key, too. Ghostface loves to verbally terrorize his victims over landline phones, cell, and now text messages. It’s been an interesting transition from seeing Billy Loomis become a suspect for having a rare cell phone in 1996 to the new Ghostface using Amber’s number to “text threaten” Tara. Somehow, landline phones are a mainstay in this universe, even in 2022.

Much of the franchise plays out like a whodunit mystery. But unlike Scooby-Doo where someone unmasks the suspect, they do the honors themselves. There’s lots of red herrings, accusations, and looking at horror movie tropes to attempt to figure it out. And, the gag is, the characters are terrible at sussing out the truth. Well, except Randy, who did guess that Billy was the killer in Scream. But he was only partially right, not seeming to seriously suspect Stu until the very end.

And Gale gets kudos for figuring out that Jill is a killer in Scream 4, even if it was in the eleventh hour. Scream (2022) finally lets Dewey get at least one of the killers right, telling Sam that it’s probably her boyfriend. It’s not clear if he was being completely serious or just snarky. A part of the fun is discovering who is behind the mask at the end. And, with two killers, there’s the challenge of trying to figure out who killed who. Mindy does a good job at discovering who two of the killers are in Scream VI, correctly guessing Ethan (who’d she had always suspected) and Detective Bailey. But even she didn’t see Quinn coming.

Of course, there are always weird theories. The first one is that Stu is somehow alive. This is wild because Sidney literally barbecues his head with a TV. I am no medical expert, but I am sure a human cannot survive that. Those fans thought Stu would somehow pop up in the upcoming movie. And, in a sense they were right. The video clip that Richie watches of the latest Stab film does feature actor Matthew Lillard as the flamethrowing Ghostface. We get a Stu mention in Scream VI when Kirby and Mindy ponder if he is still alive or not. Kirby says he’s certainly dead but Mindy seems to think otherwise, so the Stu rumors continue.

Another farfetched one is that Randy is alive. We saw his lifeless, bloody body and Mrs. Loomis admitted to stabbing him to death. And there’s a memorial to him in the Meeks-Martin household. But somehow people think he may have survived his injuries and went into hiding. Actor Jamie Kennedy has shot this down before but even his words won’t dash the hope of Randy lovers.

Now, a more plausible “might be alive” comes with Angelina. Ghostface appears to stab Angelina in Scream 3 but it mostly happens offscreen. She’s dragged away and we never see her (or her body) again. People believe Roman faked stabbing her so she could appear and help him later but instead, she ran away scot-free. It’s not impossible but Roman was a selfish, whiny dude. If anything, he would have killed her once she was no longer useful to him. Many fans believe that she was a second killer in the film. But so far there’s no hard evidence to suggest otherwise.

Scream VI sort of sets up a new “secret killer” theory too with Danny possibly being a fourth killer. We spell it out further in this post, but here are a few quick thoughts. He could have been helping redirect the Core Four from the Quinn “death” scene so that Bailey could stage everything. And his role in that subway split seems awfully suspicious. We know little to nothing about him, so what if he has a connection to Sam’s past in some way?

The one theory that we now know is true is that Kirby is alive. Scream (2022) confirms that she did not die in Scream 4. Clever fans saw a sidebar video clip about an interview she did and her number was in Dewey’s cell phone. And she did appear in sixth Scream film, filling the void that Sidney left as a legacy character.

There’s also the number seven. Until the events of Scream (2022), there were seven Ghostface killers and seven Stab movies. The original film also had seven deaths (including Billy and Stu). The Scream movie Twitter account also posted seven drops of blood a while back, which was a correct hint at the trailer coming seven days later. From a spiritual sense, it is the number of completion and represents the place between life and death.

As we know, this universe is certainly not complete with the possible exception of Sidney’s story, which wasn’t the original intention. But Scream (2022) does complete Dewey’s story in the most tragic way. And it serves as a passing of the torch to a new group of survivors, in a sense bringing the ongoing chapter of this story to a close. There are also seven main characters (not really counting the random sheriff’s offscreen death) who die in this film as well, including the two killers.

Scream VII Thoughts and Potential Suspects

At this point, we don’t know if a Scream VII is coming our way or not. But there are some possibilities to explore in this film. It could mirror Scream 3 and bring up a killer who is tied to Sam in a way that reframes what we thought we knew. Like Sidney’s mom Maureen did years ago, Sam also left Woodsboro for a stretch of time. We know that she got together with Richie and was living in another part of California. But they didn’t know each other that long. What else happened with Sam in that five year timespan? Did she perhaps make any enemies who would want to harm her? Sam and Tara’s mom as well as Tara’s dad are MIA so what’s up with them?

We also don’t know much about what’s going on with Billy’s other relatives. As far as we know, his father Hank is still alive. Does he know the truth about Sam? And Billy could have a sibling who wants to cause Sam harm for some reason. Or, perhaps one of Billy’s victims has a family member who wants revenge of some sort. Sam is the final girl now, so the story must center near or around her in some way. But this story needs to have Chad in it, who is essentially the franchise’s new Dewey now. And, Mindy and Tara complete this Core Four, so it must work all of their stories into one.

We will have to wait and see if the Scream franchise will continue to move forward.

Originally published on November 29, 2021.

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For a great many American horror folks, Italian horror means either slick Giallo murder mysteries or gory zombie carnage. Maybe with some cannibal grossness thrown in as well. But predating those, and with a much more fascinating pedigree, is the cycle of Italian Gothic films. Bolstered by the success of UK studio Hammer and its subversive, Victorian take on classic monsters, Italy launched its own slate of strange and sexy scares. Severin Films will release a box set of four such oft-forgotten films in their upcoming Danza Macabra Vol. 1 box set.

We spoke to author, critic, and one of the producers of the box set, Kat Ellinger, about the movies in the set, the Italian Gothic cycle itself, and how it differs (for the sexier) compared to British and American Gothic.

Nerdist: Growing up for me in the U.S., if it wasn’t Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, or Mario Bava, it was tough to see any Italian horror, and Gothic, the toughest of all. How did you first find it?

Kat Ellinger: Getting to it was difficult here in the UK. So, my first brush with Italian horror in the ’80s was all the video nasties stuff. It was the Fulci, it was Cannibal Ferox. I sort of did it ass backward because that was what everyone was trading at the time. And I guess one of the good things about that was that set up a solid network in the UK of collectors and traders where people were just swapping stuff and trying to find stuff.

Well, nothing was available here, but I guess it made this a life philosophy to keep looking for stuff. We weren’t ever lazy because we weren’t given anything. If we just stuck to what we could see, it was basically nothing. Or everything that we did have was heavily cut.

And so, it fostered, I guess, this spirit of adventure. But then, we were also really lucky in the ’90s. There’s a TV channel here called Channel 4, it launched in the mid-’80s, and it was the “art channel” or the “punk channel.” And they had a lot of counterculture stuff on there, music programs, art programs. I still don’t know how they got away with half of this because they showed [Paul Morrissey’s] Flesh for Frankenstein in 3D, which was on the nasties list.

That’s wild. On TV?

So, Suspiria was the first [Italian] one that I saw, so that was the real gateway for me. But it wasn’t really until the late-’90s when I was probably in my early twenties. And even though it’s not strictly Gothic horror, it sort of introduced me to the possibilities of European art, stroke horror. So, that was what really fostered my appetite. But then, the internet was just starting off. So, a lot of it was then stuff like Cinemageddon and Demonoid before that where people started then… Somebody opened the Pandora’s Box.

So, you see the sort of stuff that Severin put out, it’s the sort of stuff we were desperately wanting to get our hands on in 1989. So, it’s a dream now to have that almost cinema quality. It just blows my mind. It blows my mind.

This Severin box set has, I would say, lesser-known or at least lesser-circulated Italian Gothic films. What sets the Gothics from Italy apart from British or American Gothic?

So, I have this whole mad theory about this.

Oh, I love a mad theory.

You’ve got two strands of Gothic. You’ve got this what they call the Radcliffian tradition, which comes from Ann Radcliffe [author of The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne], which is more romantic and mystery oriented.

And then, you’ve got the Lewisite tradition, which I call Gothic terror, which stems from Matthew Lewis’ The Monk, which is one of the most transgressive books ever written. It’s got incest, Satanism, burning Nuns, necrophilia, you name it.

And so, the Italians were very adept at actually showing the Lewisite Gothic, whereas the British and Americans didn’t really do that. And Camille Paglia, who I realize isn’t the most popular for feminists. Well, she’s never been popular. But she wrote this book called Sexual Personae, where she basically, it’s an insane book.

But it’s one of the most beautifully written things I’ve ever read and very passionate. I don’t agree with all of it. But she studies the entire Western art canon, art and literature. And her theory is that, basically, men are from the Apollonian. And so, they’re all about logic because they fear the feminine, which is the Chthonian, which is closer to the earth.

It hit me that Hammer and the American Gothics are the Apollonian Gothic. They’re very male. They’re very formal. They are all about good triumphs over evil because… Because Van Helsing or whatever is a super professor. Whereas the Italians are always Chthonian. Even the men in Italian Gothic are innately Chthonian, even the so-called good guys. There’s something very queer about Italian Gothic, but also, really female-centric as well.

Oh, that is very different. Women in Hammer are very rarely more than damsels or T&A.

So, that’s always been the appeal to me. Italian Gothic is much more perverse. It’s much more Lewisite. And right off the bat, even, Monster of the Opera, which is in this set, is very perverse. But early on, they’re doing stuff like The Horrible Dr. Hichcock [directed by Riccardo Freda], which is about a necrophile. A necrophile who’s snooping around dead bodies and having kinky sex with his wife, getting her to fake being dead.

I mean, this was 1963, [Mario Bava’s] The Whip and the Body, which is all about a woman’s sexual fantasy. A masochist is so misread, that film, it always makes me laugh, but a lot of classic horror guys read it the other way around. It’s like, “No, this is her sexual fantasy.”

You mentioned Monster of the Opera, so I was wondering if you could talk a bit more about that and the other films in the set.

I was really lucky actually because I got to help create the set, so I worked really closely with Severin, this is basically what I’d like to see. And obviously, there’s more coming as well.

Yeah, you put “volume one” right on the box, which is very bold.

Yeah! So, Monster of the Opera is directed by Renato Polselli. Polselli, I’ve been a longtime fan of, and you know one of his films when you see it. The problem with Polselli is the only way you could see a lot of his work was through bootlegging because, for some inexplicable reason, nobody releases his films. He didn’t do a massive amount of horror, so this is the first time the Monster of the Opera has been restored, and it was just really exciting to see they got that.

It’s kind of like a Giallo, but it’s really psychosexual really, which is absolutely bonkers, and that’s pure Polselli. But none of his earlier stuff, nobody even talks about Polselli, which is disappointing. So, I’m really hoping this will give people a taste for the stuff that he was doing, especially seeing it restored.

So yeah, you’ve got that. Then, you’ve also got Lady Frankenstein, which I love, and I did a commentary on that with Annie Rose. It was obscene, that commentary, I can’t wait for you to hear it.

I also can’t wait to hear that!

Because the whole thing of Lady Frankenstein. She’s the daughter. And so, he creates the normal monster, but then she takes over from daddy. And he wanted this acclaim from science. She just wants to make a good-looking, living sex toy. She likes the one doctor, but he’s a bit old, so she wants to put his brain in a younger, fitter body, and it is just outrageous. It is an entirely outrageous film.

That sounds amazing.

The Seventh Grave. Now, this one gets totally slagged off by everyone. It’s trying to be more of a traditional Gothic, but it’s all about these people; they go off to this… It’s supposed to be in Scotland, but it’s clearly not. They go off to this Scottish castle and there’s an inheritance and it’s got a bit of a mystery… But it’s so bonkers. It’s so absolutely bonkers. Not loads of sex in it like the later ones, but just so bonkers that I love it. And then, again, seeing it restored, I hope, fingers crossed, people will be a bit kinder to it.

And finally, we got Scream of the Demon Lover, which is as bonkers as Lady Frankenstein, very much in that same vein because you’ve got the female scientist in it. Erna Schurer was in Strip Nude for Your Killer, and a bunch of other stuff. She’s in it, and she goes to this house. So, it’s got a bit of a Jane Eyre thing going on and also, a mad science thing going on and a bit of a Virgin of Nuremberg thing going on; it’s just nuts. And just the extent to which Severin went to restore this is insane. They even got a second scanner in.

Giallo has gotten so much reappraisal, and re-releases, lately; do you think there’s room for that kind of reappraisal for the Gothic?

This is my thinking. Obviously, I love the Giallo as well, it’s one of my specialized subjects, but we’ve had so much Giallo for so long now. Stuff that I never thought would see the light of day. It’s like, “Oh, my God, they’re releasing this!” But it did used to annoy me a bit, I think; where’s the Italian Gothic? It would just be Bava there, and that was it. And nobody seemed that interested in doing the Italian Gothic, so I’m really glad that Severin was totally on board.

Danza Macabra vol. 1 is available from Severin Films beginning March 28.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Scream VI delivered one of the biggest, bloodiest sequels in the franchise’s history, and set the stage for even more sequels to come. After watching Ghostface take Manhattan, and with another sequel all but official, could the killer of Scream 7 secretly be hiding in the 6th film? Nerdist’s Alison Mattingly takes a trip to Blackmore College to dig into her theory on this unrevealed Ghostface on today’s episode of Nerdist Now!

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Tasty, tasty, beautiful fear will abound in this adventure full of horrors. Pennywise is bringing his chilling face and deadly desires to Escape IT, a Las Vegas escape room that will make visitors feel like they are the very scary small town of Derry, Maine. The attraction by Warner Bros. Discovery Global Themed Entertainment and Egan Escape Productions boasts multiple rooms with over 30,000 feet of ominous space full of puzzles, twists, and turns to amp up the terror. (Thanks to Gizmodo for bringing this to our attention!)

Escape IT encompasses more than 20 interactive rooms with live actors, animatronics, mood lighting, and state-of-the-art special FX. The brave souls who dare to give this Pennywise escape room a try will be on a mission to search for all the poor missing kids in Derry. The escape rooms will honor It and It: Chapter Two with scenes from the movie, like the sewer tunnels and a clown funeral room. Oh, and Pennywise will be chasing them every step of the way. So much for thinking clearly. Can you escape the clutches of this clown? Where are those children hiding? There are many questions that need answers… if you dare to seek them.

There will be some fun games in the mix, along with a merch shop, too. Maybe you’ll want a mug with Pennywise’s mug on it from the IT escape room. Or maybe not. We wouldn’t blame you for running straight out of the door after seeing this clown do a horrifying jig in person.

As far as pricing goes, it will start at $54.99 on Thursdays and Fridays and $59.99 on Saturdays and Sundays. Of course, there are VIP IT escape room experiences that cost more for Pennywise fanatics. So, book your reservation and be prepared to face off against a malevolent dancing clown.

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Scream VI delivers one of the biggest, bloodiest sequels in the franchise’s history, and sets the stage for more to come. However, after watching Ghostface take Manhattan, I left the film with one looming question. Is there another Ghostface killer hiding within Scream VI? After looking back on the events of the film, I believe Sam’s love interest, Danny Brackett, is not only secretly involved in the events of Scream VI, but will come full circle to be the primary killer of Scream 7. 

Why Danny Brackett Could Be the Fourth Ghostface Killer in Scream VI

Let’s begin at the ending and who we know is under the Ghostface mask. The family of Scream (2022) killer, Richie Kirsch, is the series’ first team of three Ghostfaces. They are Ethan and Quinn, Richie’s siblings, and his father, Detective Bailey. In the film’s climax, the survivors plan on locking themselves inside the abandoned movie theater/Ghostface shrine to trap the killer(s). However, before they go inside, Sam tells Danny to stay outside, not trusting him to join in the final fight. 

If Danny is a secret Ghostface, this decision is part of the reason he doesn’t get a big reveal. In fact, we could argue that him showing up at the end with the police is part of the Kirsch family’s plan to frame Sam as the killer. Perhaps when he arrives and it is clear that Sam and Tara won, he chooses to lay low and bide his time. After all, the Kirsch killers guilt doesn’t prove his innocence.

Outside of the Scream VI finale, there are other key pieces of evidence to support Danny being a secret Ghostface killer. First, there’s the events around Quinn’s “death” earlier in the film. Detective Bailey reveals that he was first on the crime scene, allowing him to swap her body and stage everything. However, it feels like Danny has an equally important role to play in selling her death to the Core Four and authorities. 

Danny is the only person who witnesses Quinn’s “murder,” even sending pictures to the group in order to alert them. And, him getting everyone (who didn’t die or escape) to cross over into his apartment through the windows works an essential part of the plan. This redirects the group from the crime scene, allowing Detective Bailey and Quinn time to stage the scene before the cops could arrive.

There’s also the subway scene. Danny makes a choice that splits Mindy and Ethan from the rest of the group, which Chad accuses him of intentionally doing. It’s never brought back up because the group moves into the climax at the theater; however, the events that play out suggest the accusation is accurate. With Ethan under extreme suspicion and Quinn already in her mask and waiting, the attack on Mindy in the second car appears to be a coordinated plan. This is able to happen because of the direct action by Danny to split up the group. 

There’s not as much potential evidence here, but Danny could have helped with the Ghostface attack on Gale. The physical capabilities of who is under the mask has never been consistent. But maybe Danny is the one who kills Gale’s boyfriend while Quinn toys with Gale on the phone. Maybe the killer on the phone didn’t lie when they said they’d left the building. Did Danny stay and try to finish the job before Sam and Tara’s arrival? It is possible.

How Danny Brackett Could Show Up in Scream 7 as a Killer

This leads to my final thought about this theory. So far, the “requel” Scream films mirror the original trilogy. Scream (2022) can be written off as following traditional requel tropes of echoing the first film. However, Scream VI seemingly establishes a pattern with its numerous parallels to Scream 2. Beyond the college campus setting, there are several significant comparisons to the 1997 sequel. The biggest one is the killers and their motivation: a family member of the previous film’s killer out for revenge. There’s even a Mickey stand-in with Toni Revolori’s character from the opening. He’s yet another film student with a superfluous motive who dies at the hands of a main Ghostface with personal motivations.

If Scream 7 continues this pattern, it means the next sequel will heavily mirror Scream 3. The Ghostface of that film, Roman, was a secret killer involved with the previous murders behind the scenes in a way that recontextualized the events of the entire series. Building Sam and Danny’s relationship in Scream 7 only to reveal him as a long game killer would be a perfect callback to Roman. This would hint at Danny Brackett’s potential involvement in the events of Scream VI as a killer. And, I predict that he could have a deeper connection to Sam’s past and the entire requel trilogy. We don’t know if there will be a Scream 7 yet. But if it does happen, let’s see if this theory comes true.

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The Scream franchise has come a long way. In the 1996 film, if you blinked twice, you missed the ancillary Black people in the background. Yes, the main characters, especially Sidney Prescott, absolutely rule; however, it was indeed a very, very white film. Fast forward 20 plus years later and the four leading characters, now known as the Core Four, are not white. And, while Sidney had to endure a good portion of her trauma alone, this quartet is made of two sibling pairs who will do anything for each other. Fans absolutely adore Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin, the nephew and niece of Randy Meeks. In Scream VI, we get to know Chad and Mindy on a whole new level, so we chatted with Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding about their bond, Chad’s heroicness, the Chad/Tara romance, and Mindy’s wild moments with Ghostface.

Nerdist: In what ways have Chad and Mindy changed since the last Scream movie? 

Jasmin Savoy Brown: It’s mostly Mindy’s hair. (laughs) A big chop. She’s looking real different! I think Mindy is excited to be stepping into her queerness in a new way, being in college, being exposed to new people, new places. She’s probably learning about Stonewall for the first time and she’s really taking all of that really far in her self-expression and is representing who she is head to toe.

Mason Gooding: And I guess Chad, after being turned into a human pin cushion, has probably learned to maybe work on his core in case he gets stabbed ever again. And then on top of that, I think he’s really willing to invest time in the people he loves and to make sure that they’re safe. Maybe he projects a lot of what happened to him onto the wellbeing of others to make sure that they don’t have to experience what he did.

Savoy Brown: He’s a softie.

Gooding: He’s a loving himbo.

Savoy Brown: A loving himbo.

Chad is indeed a loving and brave guy in this movie. I like the way he steps up and becomes this charming and action-ready hero. It’s kind of like Duane Jones in Night of the Living Dead with a touch of Scream’s Dewey Riley. What was it like to step into that leading man role this time around? How did you prepare for it? 

Gooding: I want the best and [care about the] wellbeing of the women in my life, mainly Jasmin, Jenna (Ortega), and Melissa (Barerra). And I think I transfixed that desire for safety and security of the people I love onto Chad’s persona. And in a horror movie, especially one that’s as physical as Scream, that manifests as Chad being a protector a lot of times. I think Chad embodies a lot of what I like about modern interpretations of masculinity. He admits when he’s wrong. He listens to women when they talk about what is either wrong or what he should do and is also willing to put his body on the line to make sure that they’re okay.

I love that! And, for Mindy, she’s still got that trademark humor and is a standout character. But this film puts her in some really dire situations, like the ladder and subway scenes. What was it like filming those big moments? 

Savoy Brown: I love filming both of those scenes. The subway scene I got to film with none other than Jack Champion, our little Avatar friend. He is just a delight… I would just really try to make him break by improving crazy things, which was really fun. And same with Devyn Nekoda. She is very talented and I’m glad that she has that whole sequence to really showcase her range. She gave her whole body in that scene and in my opinion, has one of the most epic fallings anyone’s ever had.

That moment was big for Mindy. It’s a hard trauma to lose your girlfriend right in front of your face. She tries to hide behind her pain with humor, but where do you think her head space is by the end of this film?

Savoy Brown: By the end she’s really just running on adrenaline and is a bit thrown off. I think anytime you go through a trauma like that, you just kind of coasting and a bit confused and really overdoing it with the humor, like you said. And it catches up later. Mindy will probably fall apart at some point but her brother is there to catch her. 

Gooding: Chad and Mindy’s relationship is so endearing. They bicker at each other, but they really have each other’s backs and that never waivers at any point, even though they make fun of each other all the time.

They do! And you can feel the sibling chemistry between you two, both on and off camera. How did you become friends? 

Savoy Brown: Well, he started it! He texted me when I booked the job and was like, “Can’t wait to meet you. I’m here if you need anything. Let me know. I got your back.”

Gooding: Listen, I’ll be candid. We were going to film in Wilmington, North Carolina and I just wanted…

Savoy Brown: He was like, you’re the only other… (mumbles and laughs) 

Gooding: I just wanted to make sure Jasmine felt like she had someone who maybe had a similar background to her on set and a new cast of people.

Savoy Brown: Black people got to stick together.

Gooding: Straight up.

We always find each other! 

Gooding: Exactly. I just wanted to let her know I’m here.

Savoy Brown: And I said thank you because I’m scared.

Gooding: And then she hit me with a bill of therapy. If I ever want to talk, it’s like $45 an hour, which is fair.

Savoy Brown: Minimum.

Oh, my God.

Savoy Brown: My rates have gone up since.

I love you two. So, outside of this sibling relationship, Chad gets a romantic one with Tara. Can you talk about why it makes sense for them to be an item? 

Gooding: I think there’s something life altering about having such a traumatic experience for Chad that it only makes sense that certain dynamics and friendships and relationships in his life would shift dramatically. Maybe he has a new outlook, a lease on life, that would draw him to follow through on feelings that maybe he didn’t even know were available for him.

Moreover, I think there’s something so electric and magnetic about Tara’s independence and how she wants so badly to live her life the way she wants to, that I think Chad, in being such a helper and protector, wants to see her succeed and to have a life of safety and comfort. And I think whatever way that he can support her in that, he’s willing to follow through it.

That’s so lovely. Last question for you both. What were your thoughts when you read the script and discovered the killer twist? 

Savoy Brown: The end was like boom, boom, bop. I saw the first boom coming, but not the other boom and the bop. The bop really shocked me.

Gooding: When I read the script once, I must have missed it because I remember they asked, “Did you guys see the killers coming?” And I was like, “I just listed two.” And they were like, “You didn’t read carefully enough, maybe go back and try again.” And I got the whole picture after that and I was like, wow, y’all really did that! You really went and changed the game up.

Chad is a total boss here who survives two Ghostfaces stabbing him at the same time. An iconic moment. 

Gooding: And then still walks away! So that’s the real secret to being a leading man. Chad is actually a superhero. And he has immortality. There it is, guys. Spoiled.

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Scream VI is a film that’s not quite like any of its predecessors. It takes some interesting risks with its lineup of killers and an opening scene that is a departure from the past. But, it also feels quite different because Sidney Prescott is not in Scream VI. It marks the first time in the franchise that its leading lady bows out of the slicing and dicing. As we know, Sidney was supposed to be in this film; however, Neve Campbell bowed out due to a financial disagreement. So, how does Scream VI address Sidney Prescott’s absence? It’s much simpler than we thought it would be. 

This film is all about Sam and, by extension, Tara, Mindy, and Chad. Kirby and Gale come in to assist and further ground the story as legacy characters with the latter being a (less direct) target of Ghostface because, well, Gale is Gale. When the Ghostface killings arise, Gale rushes to meet Sam and Tara, who aren’t happy to see her because she wrote a book about the events of Scream (2022). You know, the book she said she wasn’t gonna write.

Anyway, Sam briefly asks about Sidney and Gale says that Sid is not getting involved, but instead taking her husband Mark and their kids to safety. Gale says it is “time she had a happy ending,” and honestly, I agree. This string of killings and the killer’s motivations have literally nothing to do with Sid at all. They aren’t even happening in her hometown. So it makes sense for her to mind her business. 

So that’s it. Scream VI addressed Sidney’s absence in quite the brief and logical way. 

Will Sidney Prescott Return to the Scream franchise?

There’s always the chance that Sidney could return to the Scream franchise. But, at this point, the unfortunate torch is now in Sam Carpenter’s hands. It is really up to Radio Silence and Neve Campbell (if all fences are mended) as to whether she will come back for a future Scream film if one happens.

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Last year, Scream (2022) had to balance bringing in new characters as well as weaving in several legacy people. This year, Scream VI was able to expand on Sam, Tara, Mindy, and Chad’s established stories with only two legacy characters in the mix: Kirby Reed and Gale Weathers. A lot of fans were both excited to see those very familiar faces in the film. But there’s a lot of legit curiosity and fear about what happens to them. Does Kirby die in Scream VI… or is she a killer? Is this the final farewell for Gale Weathers following Dewey’s death and Sidney’s absence? Let’s get into the roles that Gale and Kirby play in Scream VI and if this ruthless Ghostface gets them.

What Happens to Kirby Reed in Scream VI?

In the opening scene, Stab obsessed fans Jason and Greg meet a grisly fate before they can fully get into their own planned killing spree. The pair hail from Atlanta and their online activity has been monitored by none other that Kirby Reed. Turns out she’s a special agent in that area. She arrives in NYC and we discover that Kirby and Sam know each other from high school. (Well, sort of. Kirby was a senior when Sam was a freshman.) Kirby joins Sam, Tara, the Meeks twins, and Gale along for a wild investigation of that Ghostface shrine. She even gets to horror nerd out a bit with Mindy in a delightful scene. We discover that she did indeed die (technically) for four minutes and was angry after recovery. That event led her to becoming a special agent so “the monsters” would fear her.

But, Detective Bailey, who is working the NYC case, is suspicious of Kirby. After doing some digging, he “discovers” that Kirby supposedly lost her job because last year’s events led to a mental spiral for her. It’s pretty likely that he’s lying. But even if she went through some mental distress, it 1) totally makes sense to be upset and 2) is not necessarily grounds for firing her.

This leads Sam and Tara to nearly turn on her before soon discovering that Bailey is one of the Ghostfaces. He shoots at and later stabs Kirby, but thankfully she doesn’t die in Scream VI. Instead, she pops up like a baddie, helping the Carpenter sisters take out Ethan by dropping a TV on his head in Stu fashion. Kirby ends the movie with affirming to Sam that they are apart of the same f**ked up family and to call her if she needs anything. So, if there is a Scream 7 (or, should we say Scream VII), then maybe Kirby will return to the franchise.

What Happens to Gale Weathers in Scream VI?

It totally makes sense for Gale to be in this film. She lives in NYC and certainly won’t miss a chance to help solve a Ghostface murder spree. Unfortunately, she wrote a book about the last Woodsboro murders, which she told Sidney that she wouldn’t do. This book causes friction between her and the Carpenter sisters, as its text suggests that Sam is mentally unstable. This tidbit gives the online trolls more ammunition to blame the Woodsboro killings on her. Eventually, Gale forms a terse alliance with the “Core Four,” digging into some research to discover that wild Ghostface shrine. We get to see her witness Dewey’s section in the shrine and chat with Sam about what life is like for her after having to move on without the person she loves most. 

Later on, we see Gale in her swanky apartment with her boyfriend when she gets what we’ve all been waiting for: a Ghostface phone call. The killer taunts her about building wealth off the backs of others’ tragedies and says it’s time for someone to make a buck off of her murder. They have a pretty lengthy scene of them chatting as well as running and physically fighting, completely destroying her apartment. The killer stabs Gale more than once, including in the stomach.

Sam and Tara arrive just in time to shoot/scare Ghostface away and Gale tells them to give a message to Sidney that she didn’t let “him get her.” It seems like this isn’t true because, well, medical professionals whisk her away as she’s clinging to life. This sidelines her so the Carpenter sisters can have their final showdown moment. But, we find out that Gale will survive! We don’t get to see her anymore so there’s no real resolution there. But perhaps she will finally stop writing books that anger people and go live somewhere isolated like Sidney. 

That’s right, both Gale Weathers and Kirby Reed survive Scream VI! After losing Dewey in such a tragic way, it feels good to know that these OGs (along with Sidney) will live another day to fear Ghostface.

Scream VI is currently in theaters.

The post What Happens to Kirby Reed and Gale Weathers in Scream VI? Their Fates, Revealed appeared first on Nerdist.

Scream VI is a brutal, intense, and very solid sequel that sharpens the future direction of the franchise. It cements the delightful Core Four and weaves Gale Weathers and Kirby Reed into the mix. While fans absolutely want to know who dies in NYC, the bigger question is always around who is holding the knife (or perhaps gun). So, who are the killers in Scream VI and what’s up with that Ghostface shrine? The answer is equal parts surprising, baffling, and (for theorizing fans like me) possibly affirming. 

The Not-Really Ghostface Killer

Scream VI does something unorthodox in its opening scene by having its first kill done by someone in a Ghostface costume who isn’t revealed as a final killer. In fact, Jason becomes one of the opening kills himself. So, does Jason count as a Ghostface killer? Not really. He’s more of a copycat, an imitator of the real ones. 

The Scream VI Ghostface Killers’ Reveal and Their Twisted Rationale

In the final act, Sam, Tara, Mason, Danny and Kirby head towards the Ghostface shrine (more on that later) to execute the plan to trap and kill the killer. Detective Bailey, who has been suspicious of Kirby, isn’t totally down with the plan but doesn’t do anything to stop them, either. Sam stops Danny from entering the shrine because she’s still suspicious of him, and rightfully so considering her past. 

Sam gets a phone call from Bailey saying that Kirby is the killer. The group realizes they are locked in and begin to panic because Kirby is MIA. She shows back up right when Bailey arrives and he shoots Kirby. A chase and scramble ensues where Chad steps in to defend Tara and Sam; however, he gets accosted and stabbed by not one but two Ghostfaces. (A franchise first!) 

Sam and Tara are once again face to face with Bailey, who is indeed a killer. A Ghostface joins him…and then ANOTHER. That’s right, there are THREE killers in Scream VI and they are Detective Bailey, Ethan, and Quinn. (Bailey is positioned as more of a mastermind but still a killer. And thankfully there is not a Ghostface killer cult… technically.) While Mindy previously called Ethan, who was Chad’s roommate, out as a potential suspect, the crew thought Quinn died at their apartment. Earlier in the film, Quinn admits that she moved to NYC after the death of her brother. She also says her father transferred to NYPD to look after her. And, my friends, this is where the Scream VI killer rationale and twists come into play. 

The Scream VI Ghostface Killers’ Motivations and the Ghostface Shrine, Explained

So, why did a detective and two college-aged people decide to go after Sam and Tara? It turns out that Detective Bailey is Richie’s father and blamed Sam for his death. There are so many Scream 2 parallels in this film that it is mind boggling. The killings taking place near and on a college campus and there are small references like Tara wanting to join Omega Beta Zeta. But this is the biggest tie in because, in that film, Billy’s killer mother Nancy Loomis wants to exact revenge against Sidney.

The group knew that Quinn is the detective’s daughter but it turns out Richie had a brother, too: Ethan. Throughout the movie, the killers “payed homage” to several previous killers. Ethan is wearing Nancy Loomis mask while Quinn wears Stu’s mask. And, while we never technically see Detective Bailey in costume, we know that he played a part in making sure the crime scenes left behind mask DNA from Roman, Jill, Richie, and Charlie. Bailey wants Sam to put on Billy’s mask, weirdly. 

From this point forward, the rationale gets a little convoluted at times. Bailey explains that while the Ghostface shrine is registered to Jason and Greg, the two Stab-obsessed fans who were the opening kills, it is actually Richie’s spot. Some fans (it’s me, I’m fans) speculated that the only way someone could get access to items like the killers’ costumes, Stab 3 paraphernalia, and more would be if they worked in law enforcement. And that’s exactly what happened here. Instead of Richie’s dad helping him see a therapist, he fed into his son’s twisted obsession with making his own Stab films. He got these items to help Richie build a shrine. And, we even see a Richie-directed Stab film playing in the background during the final fight scene. Now, the Ghostface shrine is essentially a tribute to Richie. Very weird stuff, indeed. 

Detective Bailey also messily explains how he covered up Quinn’s death, saying it was easy to do some body swapping and faking as a grieving police dad. Ummmm okay. There’s not much to dissect concerning Quinn and Ethan’s motivations besides avenging their brother. Quinn did take part in assassinating Sam’s character online, spreading rumors and feeding into the gossip mill that she was the real killer in Scream (2022). 

Do the Killers Die in Scream VI?

Thankfully Tara and Sam are able to get the upper hand and take out the killers, with a nice assist from a not-dead Kirby. The most satisfying is Sam putting on Billy’s costume and stabbing Bailey mercilessly. Sam admits that her father is a cold murderer; however, she affirms that she’s not like him before finishing off Bailey with a stab to the eye. Sensational. Chad somehow survives along with Mindy, so the Core Four win this round. The cops arrive, Danny reunites with the group, Mindy shows up to be with Chad, and all is as well as it can be. 

It’s not clear where this franchise will go next if there’s a Scream 7. However, the Carpenter sisters era seems to be modeling Sidney’s trajectory. Could they possibly have a mastermind secret sibling who will show up? Or, will they learn something tragic about their mother that puts them in harm’s way? We don’t know that but we do finally know who the killers are in Scream VI, and it’s an inspired choice to have a Ghostface family with a whole shrine.

The post Who Are the Killers in SCREAM VI? appeared first on Nerdist.

The slicing and dicing continues in Scream VI as Ghostface chases after fresh meat and old foes alike. Prior to this film’s release, we knew this Ghostface would get super brutal as he (or she… or they) barrel down the streets of NYC. It is a fun place indeed for a killer, with lots of dark alleys and the subway system. Now that the film is here, everyone wants to know who dies in Scream VI and how it happens. Never fear, the answers to that question are here. 

Note: We will only cover the deaths of significant (read: named and narratively relevant) characters.

Scream VI Opening Scene Deaths 

Laura

If you thought that Samara Weaving’s character would die in Scream VI, then congrats! Laura is the film’s first kill in its harrowing narrative. Laura is at a bar waiting for Reggie, her Flirtr date, to arrive. They begin a conversation about her job as a film studies professor who focuses on slashers before he pretends to be lost. He lures her into a dark alley by pretending that he’s in danger but, of course, she’s the one who is about to die. A person in a Ghostface costume jumps out and stabs her before shockingly removing his mask. 

We soon find out that he’s Jason, one of her Stab obsessed students who kills her because he’s angry about a bad grade and also wants to basically test out his killer skills. 

Jason and Greg

Speaking of Jason, he ditches the Ghostface costume and walks back towards Blackmore University. On the way to his house, he stops and chats with Tara about an upcoming frat party. This all feels very WTF for every Scream fan. We’ve never seen a killer remove his mask at the beginning. And, we also have never seen a Ghostface killer (I guess he loosely counts, right?) immediately die at the hands of a “real” Ghostface killer. But that’s exactly what happens. Jason answers the phone thinking it is his partner-in-crime Greg, another Stab-loving psycho. But alas, it is Ghostface, who leads him to the refrigerator where Greg is hacked up. Ghostface sneaks up on Jason and stabs him to death for a unique Scream VI opening scene. 

The Main Deaths in Scream VI

Dr. Stone 

Sam’s kinda weird therapist Dr. Stone also dies at the hands of Ghostface. This killing is nothing more than a way to make her look even more suspicious. Dr. Stone was going to report Sam’s musings about stabbing Richie 22 times (and liking it) to authorities before she abruptly left their session. Ghostface appears at his door before breaking the window out, giving him a knife to the face, and stealing Sam’s patient file. 

Aneka

Well, Mindy did try to warn everyone that being around the Core Four made them either a suspect or a victim. And her girlfriend Aneka became a victim during the intense escape at Sam and Tara’s apartment. Quinn’s “boyfriend” gets hacked up here and, initially, it seems that Quinn does too. (We later find that to be false.) But poor Aneka is the big death in this scene. Ghostface stabs her in the stomach multiple times before she can get to the ladder to climb across to Danny’s apartment. The killer jiggles the ladder and Aneka eventually cannot hold on, her bloody hands slipping as she falls to a grotesque death in front of Mindy. 

Brooks (Gale’s Boyfriend) 

This probably won’t hurt fans too much because they will forever love Dewey Riley. But, considering Gale and Dewey hadn’t been together for years, it makes sense that Gale would move on and find a new romance. That romance quickly dies when Ghostface gets into Gale’s apartment and dispatches her bae, Brooks, before chasing Gale around. (Side note: Quinn admits that this was her and I must say, she’s fast and strong as hell to throw a grown man through glass.) It seems that Ghostface will kill Gale too but thankfully she survives. 

Ethan, Quinn, and Detective Bailey 

The film ends with the killers (yes, three of them) dying in the Ghostface shrine. It’s truly inspired to have them, the family of Richie Kirsch, band together to take the Carpenter sisters out. But they do not succeed. Tara digs a knife into Ethan’s mouth before Kirby later finishes him off with a TV to the face. Sam shoots Quinn in the head before dressing up in Billy’s costume and lighting the detective’s ass up with her father’s knife. It is all very, very wild but it’s a satisfying ending to Scream VI.

There were quite a few near-deaths in Scream VI in addition to Gale, including the Meeks twins and Kirby, but our main characters make it out alive. It’s shocking that none of them died this time around but there’s always another chance if Ghostface returns.

The post Who Dies in SCREAM VI? appeared first on Nerdist.

In 1996, Scream burst onto the mainstream horror scene and became an instant hit. Its blend of slasher thrills, meta commentary, comedic and memorable one-liners, and the unorthodox revelation of two killers quickly led to Scream 2 one year later. Interestingly, this franchise’s new era is following suit with Scream VI, which comes on the heels of Scream (2022). But, while Scream 2 will never quite outshine the original, Scream VI is superior to its predecessor, challenging expectations (to a degree), dialing up brutality, and further cementing the franchise’s ability to keep slashing for years to come. 

Scream VI brings us to NYC, where Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown), and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding) are attending college. Along for the ride is Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barerra), who is still deeply haunted by the previous Woodsboro events. Sam and Tara are both finding their own ways to cope, for better or worse, when a new Ghostface killing once again sends their lives into a spiral.

One of the key tenets of the Scream films are their clever opening scenes. They set the tone for the movie, sparking a string of chaos to come. Scream VI’s opening scene is certainly a departure from previous ones, subverting fans’ preconceived notions about what will transpire. While other Scream opening scenes feel more removed from the film’s main plot, this one weaves seamlessly into the narrative. 

Scream VI doesn’t disappoint in the stabbing/killing department, delivering the bloodiness that fans come to see. Generally speaking, the Scream franchise’s best kill scenes are crafted around unique and stellar set pieces that really amp up the tension and intensity. Scream VI delivers its attacks with panache and memorable visual elements, as it should in New York City. (Certainly better than Scream 3‘s use of Hollywood.)

The film leans into those classic elements of Scream movies and dials them up a notch. More menacing phone calls, loads of sharp dialogue, and intense chase/stalking scenes! And who can resist the always necessary “establishing the rules” monologue (thank you, Mindy!) alongside a smattering of Easter eggs for the superfans among us? Sometimes, not straying too far from the foundation is a smart choice. But there’s much more than just casual references to the past; this sequel leans heavily into the legacy of the entire franchise while still crafting a path of its own. Scream VI takes narrative risks with a few supreme twists but decidedly chooses to play it safe at other turns. What you think you know… you do not know. And even if you do know, you’re missing some serious details.

And, thankfully, the film gives our main four—Sam, Tara, Chad, and Mindy—excellent character development. This is especially true for Chad. His character rises far beyond the “attractive jock” archetype with an impact that could cement him as a horror legend. Gooding’s performance is absolutely flawless, his cleverness and charm lighting up the screen in every scene.

Of course, Jenna Ortega is a certified star who shares chemistry with pretty much anyone she encounters onscreen. But Mason Gooding is undoubtedly Scream VI‘s breakout performance. Savoy Brown’s Mindy provides the needed comedic relief while also showcasing another level of vulnerability and tenacity. And, Barrera’s Sam gives us a new brand of final girl with a spark of ruthlessness and rage.

Scream VI strikes the balance between parsing through its sibling dynamics, the quartet’s overall relationship, and ushering in new characters well. However, its incorporation of legacy characters does falter in ways. Scream VI’s storyline easily removes Sidney from the narrative because, well, this is literally Sam’s problem in a whole other state. Courteney Cox’s Gale fits in, mostly due to location, and gets a handful of scenes that allow her to aid the group and further process losing Dewey.

As Scream fans know, Gale Weathers has had some of the best character development in the franchise. We’ve watched her go from a selfish, fame-hungry “tabloid twit” to a clever investigator who cares for others. Sadly, Scream VI doesn’t continue that progression, instead pushing her back towards being unnecessarily opportunistic. Should they have left her out of film? Not at all. It made sense to bring her back to complete the bridge between eras and address looming questions. But Gale Weathers became someone better and this film should have stood on that.

Kirby fits into the story well and the film crafts enough connections to justify her return. Hayden Panettiere brings her back to life, showing her weariness, nerdiness, and wittiness in equal doses. But, the way Scream VI handles elements of Kirby’s storyline for “plot twist” sake is disheartening, even though it is a reflection of how traumatized women are treated. And, the film adds in one more nod to the past that’s particularly frustrating but not pervasive enough to derail the film.

As a figure, Ghostface shines in this film, delivering on the promise of a ruthless and relentless killer. Long gone are the days of a goofier antagonist who trips over his own feet. Now, Ghostface is leaping, sprinting, and busting through barriers like a ravenous, bloodthirsty animal. Roger L. Jackson continues to breathe glorious life into this character with his signature voice that makes the hairs on your neck stand at attention. There’s a wonderfully ominous aesthetic air that lingers over this film, hinting that danger is right around the corner. Very Ghostface vibes, indeed.

Speaking of Ghostface, everyone wants to know one big thing: the killer(s) reveal. I’m obviously not going to tell you the answer. But Scream VI once again pays homage while also doing something wholly unique with perhaps the most entertaining final showdown in the franchise. The “this is how/why it happened” reveal spill feels somewhat convoluted, trite, and rushed in areas; however, it still takes some commentary/connection to the previous film and solidly expands on it. This opens the gateway for testing new approaches in future Scream films, especially with some lingering threads in the mix. Overall, Scream VI gave us cleverness, camp, kills, and thrills to cement itself as a solid sequel and affirm the franchise is in good hands with Radio Silence.

Scream VI hits theaters on March 10.

Scream VI ⭐ (4 of 5)

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On its surface, Unwelcome is the kind of film that would lure any horror and/or thriller aficionado into its clutches. A story about a paranoid pregnant woman and her spouse having to serve creatures of the forest who threaten to enter their idyllic home certainly sounds like a win. Who among us can resist a creepy creature feature with a heavy dose of paranoia, blood offerings, and fish-out-of-water tension? No one, surely. Unwelcome attempts to wrangle all of these elements with a dash of (possibly unintended at times?) comedic relief. And, in many ways, trips and falls down the runway before making a decent landing in its final minutes. 

Directed by Grabbers Jon Wright, this folk horror flick follows Maya (Hannah John-Kamen) and her kindhearted boyfriend Jamie (Douglas Booth). The London couple’s joy over discovering her pregnancy soon takes a turn after a brutal attack in their apartment. Months later, they relocate to a lush rural area in Ireland to move into Jamie’s newly inherited home, thanks to his Aunt Maeve’s passing.

It seems like a convenient blessing for the duo. That is, until they realize this place is hella weird in more ways than one. The people are aggressively strange, including a group of contractors hired to renovate the home as well as Maeve’s old friend. The latter spends time with the couple, revealing that there’s a caveat to owning this specific house. They must deliver a blood offering to the Red Caps who live in the forest every night without fail. (For those who don’t know Irish folklore, a Red Cap is a killer goblin, fae, dwarf, etc. who soaks its hat in the blood of its victims.) If they don’t do it, things can get ugly. 

And it takes far too long for 1) things to get ugly and 2) for us to get a goblin reveal. The first half of Unwelcome is a repetitive bore as things constantly get spelled out in dialogue to reinforce its themes. Yes, we understand that Maya and Jamie are sensitive, kind people and therefore targets for the nastier humans among us. They are, in fact, unwelcome (roll credits!) everywhere they go. We understand that without several scenes of annoyingly surface-level interactions/information dumping that do little work towards advancing the story, character development, or crafting palpable tension. (It is worth noting that both John-Kamen and Booth are able to craft solid performances out of this messy pile.)

Unwelcome flirts with issues like our perceptions of what is “masculine,” how parenthood changes us, regional/social tensions, and anxiety, but doesn’t firmly engage with them nor successfully weave them into its narrative. Its tone is also unsettling as it messily slips between (unfunny) awkward comedy, tense drama, and physical brutality.

Once Maya begins to explore the possibilities (and dangers) of the woods, the film begins to gain traction as a horrifying truth reveals itself. At this point, things take quite the baffling turn that is either bizarrely entertaining or profoundly disappointing, depending on what lens you choose. While Unwelcome‘s marketing doesn’t clearly point towards it being a horror comedy, the film’s third act certainly leans in that direction.

Sometimes, it feels intentional, considering the gorily fun practical effects and very delightful puppet-esque appearance of the Red Caps in the style of Gremlins. Both fit in well with the overall aesthetic atmosphere of the film, which often looks like a stage play set. Pair this with silly Red Caps dialogue and over-the-top acting antics and, well, you may find an occasional chuckle. (Still, it pales in comparison to Wright’s horror-comedy darling Grabbers.) But, even looking at its first two acts, I suspect that many viewers will find this shift jarring and baffling. It wants to strike a balance of levity and terror, but cannot keep its feet on that thin line.

However, the film’s final moments make for a surprisingly satisfying end. It gives Maya (and by extension Jamie) a new sense of power, importance, and agency that they sorely lacked. Blood and rain pour as Maya emerges into a new sense of self and womanhood. A newly minted mother in more ways than one with the ability to shift circumstances according to her will. This would perhaps resonate more if they felt like fully realized characters; however, I respect the bold and unexpected conclusion. But, considering Unwelcome’s chaotic tonal shifts, uneven pacing, and underwhelming script, that ending certainly doesn’t feel earned.

Unwelcome will hit AMC Theaters on March 8 as a part of its “Thrills and Chills” lineup. It will be available digitally on March 14.

Unwelcome ⭐ (2 of 5)

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‘Tis the season for horror video game adaptations. Recently, The Last of Us made a successful jump from console to screen, and now Dead by Daylight hopes to do the same. A Dead by Daylight horror movie is in the works from Jason Blum and James Wan of Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, and Behaviour Interactive. Together, they’ll aim to capture the magic—or is that creeping dread?—of this multiplayer survival horror game.

What’s interesting about Dead by Daylight is that one player actually takes the role of the killer, while the other four try to survive the deadly attacks. Survivors play in the third person, while the killer plays in the first person. We can see how that could make for an interesting project of horrific cinematography. Maybe we don’t ever get a good glimpse of the killer until it’s too late.

Additionally, Dead by Daylight has a slew of different killers in its world, including some familiar horror figures. So there are plenty of directions a Dead by Daylight movie could go. Most likely, we’ll see an original killer (or ten), but it’s always fun to see an icon cameo. A drive-by Ghostface stabbing, anyone? We’re for it.

Atomic Monster Founder and CEO James Wan notes about the adaptation:

In Dead by Daylight, the Behaviour team has created a love letter to the world of horror, building an incredible environment teeming with atmosphere and terrifying villains — perfect for a scary cinematic adaptation. We’re big fans of the game at Atomic Monster, and are thrilled to be teaming up with Blumhouse to bring this frighteningly visceral world to the big screen.

We guess it’s time for us all to step into the fog together. Hopefully, we’ll get more details about the Dead by Daylight movie before the killer finds out where we’re hiding.

The post A DEAD BY DAYLIGHT Horror Movie Is Creeping Our Way appeared first on Nerdist.

Hello Sam… and Tara, and Mindy, and Chad, and…well, you get the point. Ghostface is going after a whole gang of survivors in NYC. While Scream (2022) upped the ante with brutality, it seems that this Ghostface is going to be even more vicious. The Scream VI trailer delivers gore and a shocking shrine that will have fans running to theaters on March 10. And as the date draws nearer, we are getting the final teases for Scream VI with a new featurette.

The clip shows us things we’ve seen already. But this Scream VI featurette includes a word from its actors, including Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, and Courteney Cox. Ortega and Barerra tell us that this Ghostface is the most ruthless one we’ve seen yet, who is not only targeting specific people, but also just killing for the heck of it.

Now, that’s interesting, considering that previous Ghostfaces were strategic and intentional about their kills. They usually did it for a distraction, to form a pattern, for revenge, or, in the case of Scream 3, to clear a house for a final showdown. Scream VI star Jasmin Savoy Brown admits that the rules are different this time around, which Ghostface clearly tells Gale on the phone in the featurette. And this Ghostface is certainly wild and super athletic, coming for our crew in a full sprint. Why? We will have to wait and see how it all goes down.

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Growing up in North America, you might assume the entirety of Italian horror movies are either proto-slasher giallo films or gory zombie flicks. But not so! While giallo owned the ’70s and zombies devoured the ’80s, the ’60s saw a much more austere and traditional spate of horror in the form of a cycle of Gothic horror. These fascinating and varied films have seen a renaissance on home media in the past few years, and boutique distributor Severin Films have been at the forefront. Now we have a brand new, all-Gothic, all-Italian box set coming our way: Danza Macabra Volume One.

Sure, Gothic horror has castles, crypts, and candelabras, but the genre—especially in Italy—also includes lots of other delicious, devilish delicacies. You’ve got repressed sexuality, family secrets, violence, and growing madness. The four films in Danza Macabra Volume One might not be super well known; however, they have wall-to-wall examples of the best of the genre.

In 1964’s The Monster of the Opera, director Renato Polselli and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi craft a surreal erotic shocker set within a contemporary dance troupe. Perhaps the genre’s rarest film, the berserk supernatural narrative of 1965’s The Seventh Grave also makes it among the strangest. For 1970’s Scream of the Demon Lover, director José Luis Merino gathers classic traditions, then strips them naked and ties them to a torture rack. And 1971’s Lady Frankenstein delivers iconic EuroCult talent on both sides of the camera for one of the most luridly entertaining shockers of the decade.

As with all of Severin’s recent box sets (like The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee; The Lenzi/Baker Collection; and especially their amazing All the Haunts Be Ours folk horror compendium), Danza Macabra will have tons of great special features. Each film will have at least one commentary track from authors and critics such as Kat Ellinger; Rachael Nisbet; Rod Barnett and Robert Monell; Annie Rose Malamet; and Alan Jones and Kim Newman. Video essays, interviews with filmmakers and luminaries, and documentaries round out the set.

Complete list of extras below.

Special Features for MONSTER OF THE OPERA

• Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger
• Terror At The Opera – Interview With Screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
• Capodimonte Gothic – Interview With Mark Thompson-Ashworth
• Radio Polselli – Archival Audio Interview With Director Renato Polselli
• French Trailer

Feature Specs for MONSTER OF THE OPERA

• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Audio: Italian Mono
• Subtitles: English
• Region: A

Special Features for SEVENTH GRAVE

• Audio Commentary With Rachael Nisbet
• Seven Graves And A Mystery – Interview With Film Historian Fabio Melelli
• English Aesthetic With Giallo Blood – Video Essay By Rachel Knightly

Feature Specs for SEVENTH GRAVE:

• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Audio: Italian Mono
• Subtitles: English
• Region: A/B/C

Special Features for SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER

• Audio Commentary With Rod Barnett And Robert Monell
• Scream Erna Scream! – Interview With Actress Erna Schurer
• In The Castle Of Blood – Video Essay By Stephen Thrower, Author of Eyeball Compendium
• Trailer

Feature Specs for SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER

• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Audio: English Mono, Italian Mono
• Closed Captions: English SDH
• Region: A

Special Features for LADY FRANKENSTEIN

• Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger And Annie Rose Malamet
• Audio Commentary With Alan Jones And Kim Newman
• Meet The Baroness – Featurette With Actress Rosalba Neri And Film Historian Fabio Melelli
• Piecing Together LADY FRANKENSTEIN
• The Lady And The Orgy – Documentary Short On Director Mel Welles
• The Truth About LADY FRANKENSTEIN (2007) – German TV Documentary
• Clothed Insert Shots
• Video Short Illustrating BBFC Censorship Cuts
• Italian Opening Credits
• Bigfilm Magazine (1971) – Italian LADY FRANKENSTEIN Photo Novel
• Extensive Image Gallery
• Home Video Gallery
• Radio Spots
• TV Spot
• Trailers

Feature Specs for LADY FRANKENSTEIN

• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Audio: English Stereo, Italian Stereo
• Subtitles: English
• Closed Captions: English SDH
• Region: A/B/C

Danza Macabra Volume One will arrive on March 28. You can never start Gothic season too early.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Demonic possessions and exorcisms that test the faith of true believers have long been horror movie staples. But in The Pope’s Exorcist, we’ll see things going to the next level. After all, the Pope would only get involved if true trouble were at hand.

Take a look at The Pope’s Exorcist‘s trailer below and get ready to face the unholy demons that have come to challenge Russell Crowe.

This trailer poses a curious question. If the Pope’s exorcist is the highest rank of exorcist there is, who then will come to exorcise the exorcist if he himself gets possessed? Could it be the Pope himself? Or does he not do that kind of thing? It’s quite the riddle and one we bet you can’t say ten times fast. But it seems like that’s exactly what the demon is after in this movie. We better hope he doesn’t get his way. Although there would be a true irony to it if he did.

The synopsis for The Pope’s Exorcist reveals more about the story behind the chilling adventures we’ll witness. The synopsis notes:

Inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican (Academy Award®-winner Russell Crowe), The Pope’s Exorcist follows Amorth as he investigates a young boy’s terrifying possession and ends up uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy the Vatican has desperately tried to keep hidden.

There is a lot more that needs unpacking here. We’ll get a look at the files of the Vatican, a harrowing possession by a terrifying demon, and, of course, the cherry on top, a centuries-old conspiracy. What could the Pope be hiding? If anyone can find out, it’s his exorcist. And we can’t wait to find out for ourselves when The Pope’s Exorcist releases on April 14.

The post THE POPE’S EXORCIST Trailer Pits Russell Crowe Against Next-Level Demons appeared first on Nerdist.

The MCU has really opened our eyes to what a connected cinematic universe can do. And Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey really opened our eyes to how deliciously twisted some of our beloved childhood icons can become when put into a horror movie. Now, we’re excited about the notion of combining the two.

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey director Rhys Frake-Waterfield shared with The Hollywood Reporter that he has plans to expand his collection of twisted childhood-based horror movies to include more public domain figures like Bambi and Peter Pan.

But beyond that, “[t]he idea is that we’re going to try and imagine they’re all in the same world, so we can have crossovers… People have been messaging saying they really want to see Bambi versus Pooh.”

Bambi versus Pooh would really be a sight to see. Just sprinkle Tinkerbell’s not-so-magical dust on top. But this horror cinematic universe won’t just feature Disney characters like some sort of multiverse realm. Frake-Waterfield offers, “There are many, many, many other ideas out there which aren’t tied to Disney, loads of old fairytales and urban legends, concepts that are synonymous with your childhood, and they’re the ones which I want to build up into a twisted alternative reality.”

Ruined childhood, here we come.

The post A Twisted Childhood Cinematic Horror Universe on the Way from BLOOD AND HONEY Director appeared first on Nerdist.

Hello, Sidney… or should we say Sam? The Scream franchise is rolling full steam ahead after a 10 year hiatus. The “requel” Scream (2022) brought in a new generation of fresh meat and a new pair of final girls, Sam and Tara, as this ongoing saga moves forward. Shortly after the film’s release, we got big news about a sixth Scream (Scream VI) film coming our way. Who can resist more Ghostface, more slicing and dicing, and keeping up with the many horror movie rules?

Here’s everything we know about Scream VI. 

Title

The title for this film is Scream VI (also stylized as Scream 6), which is wild considering they decided to not call the previous film Scream 5.

Scream VI’s Plot 

We don’t know much about the film’s plot at this time. But, the official synopsis from Paramount Pictures is a small hint at what’s to come:

Following the latest Ghostface killings, the four survivors leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter. In SCREAM VI, Melissa Barrera (“Sam Carpenter”), Jasmin Savoy Brown (“Mindy Meeks-Martin”), Mason Gooding (“Chad Meeks-Martin”), Jenna Ortega (“Tara Carpenter”), Hayden Panettiere (“Kirby Reed”), and Courteney Cox (“Gale Weathers”) return to their roles in the franchise alongside Jack Champion, Henry Czerny, Liana Liberato, Dermot Mulroney, Devyn Nekoda, Tony Revolori, Josh Segarra, and Samara Weaving.

Scream VI will take place in New York City. So that evens the score with three films in Woodsboro and three taking place elsewhere. Tara, Mindy, and Chad are attending college in the Big Apple while Sam tags along to help keep her little sister safe. Jenna Ortega revealed in an Entertainment Weekly interview that there’s once again tension with Sam and Tara. “At the top of the film we see my character Tara avoiding her trauma and desperately trying to reclaim her teenage experience and become normal college student,” says Ortega. “There’s a lot of tension between her and Sam, she feels as though she’s too protective and unwilling to allow them both to move on. She feels suffocated.”

And, according to Melissa Barerra, its only been around a year since the previous film’s events. That’s fascinating to hear. Sometimes time jumps can enhance a movie, but sometimes its best to keep the timeline tight. In any case, we’re excited for this Scream VI timeline because it will allow us to really see how the characters are dealing with and evolving from the horrors they encountered in the previous movie. One of those people is Gale, who works and lives in the city. So she will easily come back into the fold.

The film is really leaning into the NYC-ness of it all with this fun New Year’s Day graphic expressing Ghostface’s resolution to “travel more.” And by traveling, he (or she… or they) mean killing more people.

Really interesting details, especially with Kirby’s station being closed and how all the lines lead to Sam. While the franchise is moving forward with a new chapter, perhaps we will still get some nods to the past after all.

We also get our first look at everyone in action in the first teaser for Scream VI.

Interestingly, a closer look at Ghostface revealed a new rendition of the iconic mask. In Scream VI, Ghostface is donning an aged, weathered-looking incarnation.

Director Tyler Gillett had this to say about Ghostface’s new look.

It will all make sense in the context that you see it in the movie…That was another one of the really interesting risks and creative approaches in this movie. It’s meta in a different way, and the mask very much factors into that.

Fellow director Matt Bettinelli-Olpin concluded, “It was not an arbitrary choice.”

Behind the Scenes 

Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett will return to direct Scream VI, with James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick penning the script. The film was shot in Montreal and finished filming in August 2022.

Scream VI’s Cast

Melissa Barerra and Jenna Ortega will obviously return as sisters Sam and Tara Carpenter. Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding are also reprising their roles as Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin.

Unfortunately, Neve Campbell will not come back Sidney Prescott, citing salary dispute issues. It will be the first Scream movie to not have Sidney, which is rather sad. However, Courteney Cox is bringing the infamous Gale Weathers back in some capacity. And, in perhaps the biggest delight for fans, Hayden Panettiere is bringing back Kirby for Scream 6. There’s been speculation that Kirby survived the events of Scream 4 and, after a couple of clever Easter eggs in Scream (2022), it became certain. It’s not clear how Kirby will fit into the picture at this time but Panettiere says Kirby is still the same, just older and wiser. In fact, we get a good look at her and the entire cast on this new poster.

In November 2022, Ortega spoke to Entertainment Weekly about how the film is so “gore-heavy” that fans may not notice Sidney’s looming absence. She also affirms that Scream VI will still honor Sidney’s legacy. “But it’s very clear, like, there’s references to Sidney, of course,” said Ortega. “You know, it’s nice because there’s still a protectiveness in the script and that’s something that the actors had naturally over her because obviously we respect her and we want the best for her. She’s missed and thought of.” So it will be interesting to see what references come up about Sidney in this film.

We don’t know too much about what either Gale or Kirby will be doing in this next installment of Scream… But, one thing is for sure: they are going THROUGH IT, based on these photos.

For new cast, Dermot Mulroney will portray a cop while Samara Weaving, Henry Czerny, and Spider-Man‘s Tony Revolori  have also joined the cast in undisclosed roles. Jack Champion will portray a character named Evan, Devyn Nekoda will be Alison, Liana Liberato will play Carly, and Josh Segarra rounds things up as David. We don’t know much about these characters but we can assume that the former three are college students alongside Tara. Segarra’s David is a bit older so maybe he’s an ill-fated NYC cop or even a love interest for Sam.

Scream VI’s Release Date 

Scream VI will release on March 10, 2023. 

Originally published on September 30, 2022.

The post Everything We Know About SCREAM VI appeared first on Nerdist.

In the ‘90s, Scream led to a swath of teen ensemble horror franchises like Final Destination and I Know What You Did Last Summer. It’s now officially back into the game with last year’s hit movie and another film coming soon. So, it is not surprising that the franchise is inspiring others to dust off their dormant universes and return back for more gore. Deadline reports that an I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel is reportedly in the works with a possibility that Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze, Jr. will return. Right now, there’s no official word from Sony nor the actors, so we will have to wait and see if another terrible summer is coming soon. 

If they do come back, the I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel will likely follow a format similar to what we saw in Scream (2022). Legacy characters like Julie James and Ray Bronson will return to help newer people get through a horrific antagonist is a win for longtime fans and new ones, too. It would be interesting, though, considering that the last time we saw these I Know What You Did Last Summer characters, it seemed that the hooked killer was about to murder them. Of course, this could have simply been Julie’s bad dream. Thankfully, a canceled fourth film with their confirmed deaths didn’t take place. If Julie James and Ray Bronson come back for an I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel, it will be interesting to see if they are still together and what their lives are like decades later.

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In 2019, the groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror gave us a vital education. Based on Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman’s 2011 scholarly text Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present, it resonated deeply with Black horror fans, teaching us something new about a genre that we all have a complex relationship with. For those of us who have been into horror for a while, our resources prior to Horror Noire included sites Mark H. Harris’ Blackhorrormovies.com, a digital Rolodex of films by and about us. It has the perfect blend of humor, information, and analysis about horror’s Black flicks over several decades.

Now, Dr. Coleman and Mr. Harris have joined their brilliant minds together to bring us The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar, a brilliant exploration of Black horror to add to your collection. (Let’s call it The Black Guy Dies First for brevity’s sake.) Nerdist caught up with the authors to discuss the book, their gateway into horror, and hopes for the genre’s future. 

Nerdist: What drew you into the world of horror?

Mark H. Harris: Well, I’ve kind of always been interested in the darker side of storytelling. One of the earliest horror movies I remember watching was Night of the Living Dead. And I was fascinated by the fact that the main character was a Black guy. And it was a black and white movie, which to me seemed ancient. So the fact that the lead character was this Black guy who was bossing white people around and slapping them and stuff, and he was the hero of the story was really fascinating. Then, on top of it, he ended up dying at the end.

It really struck me as a child… I think it was probably 12 or so when I watched it [for the first time]. It reflected the realities of life. Not everything has a happy ending. And you can tell a story that’s a great story and not have the people walk into the sunset and everything be great. That’s kind of what horror does. It looks at the darker side of life and how things don’t always have happy endings. And it just really resonated with me. So that sent me down the horror spiral, I think.

Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman: Romero is going to loom large in this first response. I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My family is still there. And that’s obviously where Night of the Living Dead and the Dead films were filmed in or around. So there was this sort of omnipresence of Romero growing up. He was at Carnegie Mellon University and I was even a student at CMU. At one point, it sort of felt like, “Oh, I’m walking in the footsteps of George Romero.” …There’s something about Night of the Living Dead.

And I will have to admit that much later than most [people], I didn’t quite understand it as a proper horror movie because I was so focused on the character Ben, portrayed by Duane Jones, and what was happening there. I didn’t have that language at the time, but it felt very ethnographic. Night of the Living Dead has real Pittsburghers in it that other people may not know, but we recognized them. And so it sort of hit different for Pittsburghers. That [film] was probably my introduction to social justice questions. Understanding that there were narratives about anti racism that we should be engaging with. So that is how I got into it. 

That explains why this film is such a cornerstone in your work! It was truly revolutionary at the time. 

Coleman: Yes… Ben represented something else that was so powerful. Now, horror has been with me for so long. And there’s a blurring of genres for me, because we talk a lot about horror. And sometimes people are so serious about the horror genre. Horror is super funny. And I write a lot about comedy and I laugh until my cheeks hurt sometimes with these horror films. And so in that way, because I don’t fully immerse myself in the super gross out horror, it’s easy for it to be in my life because it’s super entertaining.

Absolutely. When it comes to The Black Guy Dies First, it feels like a continuation of what we saw in the Horror Noire books and documentary, both of which are vital additions to Black horror history. How do you think this book expands on that previous work and adds something new to the conversation?

Harris: I think it serves as a good companion piece to Horror Noire. It’s designed to be a little less academic [than the book] and have more popular appeal. It has more humor and little lists and sidebars and stuff but it doesn’t touch on a lot of the same topics… We’re taking more of an entertaining kind of aspect to kind of draw people in before we drop the big message.

I love the marriage of humor and knowledge. The Black Guy Dies First has a universal appeal in many ways, but some of the humor is absolutely for us. It’s so enjoyable and meant for only us to understand.  Robin, how do you think that it really expands on Horror Noire?

Coleman: Mark is absolutely right. And Mark has been so deeply involved, including the second edition of Horror Noire, which came out in November, more than 10 years after the first edition. So it was happening at the same time as The Black Guy Dies First and there was a lot of conversation. The first Horror Noire is very much a scholarly text. There’s a significant theoretical, undergirding there, there’s a different reliance on data, the audience and readership is different, even though I can’t get away from the accessible tone in my writing in some ways, which makes it a popular text to be adopted in the classroom.

But Horror Noire is very US based and though The Black Guy Dies First focuses a lot on US cinema, because that’s what we know, I would say that we’ve done a good job of also gesturing outside of US bounds. And you’re absolutely right, this is a FUBU book. It’s for us by us… But I also do think it’s clearly a love letter to the genre from two people who are big fans.

Yeah, and there’s so much encompassed in about 300 pages of content. How did you two partner together to tackle such an expansive project? 

Coleman: it really all starts with Mark’s Blackhorrormovies.com website. Mark is a horror scholar, super smart, and has a really nice writing style that is accessible. That is what the framework of The Black Guy Dies First is. And I relied heavily on his website as a resource to write the first edition of Horror Noire. There’s so many voices out there who will dissuade you from taking horror, particularly Black horror, seriously.

But Mark’s website isn’t just a laundry list of films. He’s got an encyclopedic knowledge and the way that he’s writing about the films on that site lets you know that he’s a brilliant scholar who understands the genre in front of and behind the screen… And then I totally turned into a fangirl and called him and said, “We got to do something,” and it was out of the blue… And it actually happened. So I’ve been in his life as a sort of writer-scholar for almost a decade. And I knew—he might have not known—but I knew that eventually we were going to partner on a project together because he is really a smart, gorgeous writer. And so I think that’s my definition of the process. I’m sticking to it. 

There are so many Black writers who looked to Blackhorrormovies.com for inspiration and guidance, myself included! 

Harris: Yeah. I think Robin definitely has the drive that I did not have. If it wasn’t for her, I would still be sitting on my sofa just writing for myself, basically. But I think she kind of pulled me into this world and made me realize that it is possible for us to write an actual book. Like, I never envisioned that I would write a book. Even on my website, I was just doing it for fun… I think it goes to show that you just write about what you like, you know, find your own little niche, and then things can happen for you. 

Coleman: There’s a lot more books in Mark and a lot of great ideas. So we’re not done hearing Mark’s incredible voice!

I certainly hope we get more! Let’s dig into a book just a bit. In chapter three, you get into horror that’s infused with social commentary and analysis. I love the line where you say “Black horror is our social syllabus.” I’d love to hear both of you expand on that statement. 

Harris: That was your line [Robin]. That was a good one. 

Coleman: I want to preface by saying that I’m not saying every horror movie needs to be a message movie, and it doesn’t need to always center either black trauma or struggle… I’m not saying that. But the pure existence of Black horror in some ways is an intervention on those systems and structures that confined Blackness in the first place, right? The horror genre often allows us to break out of that. What I find really interesting is that if it’s a US horror movie, most often you have to reflect on the trauma, not the torture porn trauma that people talk about with slavery, but the institution of racism in the US in the first place. It looms large in Black American stories.

And so Black horror often turns kind of pedagogical. That social syllabus is not only an examination of those structures, but it also offers solutions, which I love. And in horror, the solution isn’t always simple. In fact, the solution in horror is wholly uncivil in its approach. And so we learn a lot about the civil rights movement and civility and respectability, and how to show up. And Black horror was like, “I see you, respectability politics, and I’m going to throw that out, and I’m going to eviscerate you.” And these are the powerful, symbolic solutions to a country that hasn’t always loved us. 

All of this. Absolutely true. Mark, what are your thoughts? 

Harris: I think horror in general has always been kind of a metaphorical genre that will often have deeper meaning beneath the surface. The monsters might represent something else. [With] Dawn of the Dead, there were a lot of messages about consumerism, you know, and Rosemary’s Baby was talking about the role of women. So I think when you infuse race into it, like you said, it’s kind of part and parcel with American society, everything to do with America has race, we’ve woven into the fabric.

I think when you have race in horror, it will inevitably—even if it doesn’t mean to—have  some sort of social impact. Just the image, for instance, of a Black person being killed in a violent manner will trigger some people to say, “Oh, this is too close to home, too close to instances of police brutality.” So it’s always some sort of social inclination to imagery of Black horror, whether or not it’s really intended.

Yeah, for sure. And there’s also intersectionality within our identities, too. One of the things that you cover in the book towards the end was LGBTQ representation in horror. The pitfalls are disheartening, because I see horror as something that is very othered and outside the “norm.” So it is kind of inherently queer by definition. What do you think about the shifts in Black LGBTQ characters and do you think it will improve in our current landscape?

Harris: I think we’re at a crossroads right now with Black horror in general. It could go in a number of different ways. This whole resurgence of Black horror really kicked off in 2017 with Get Out, so we’re at the five or six year mark, where historically things can either fade out like the Blaxploitation era or the ‘90s urban movie era when Hollywood eventually found something else to pay attention to. Or [Hollywood] can find new voices to carry on…  We’re at a key moment right now where we need to have voices who are willing to support Black queer stories and have studios and distributors willing to give them a chance. 

It’s so important to see that representation in mainstream media. Yes, we do have lots of indie creatives who are making excellent and diverse content, but the mainstream still matters. Those films get big budgets and marketing and open doors for more stories. 

Coleman: I think you’re absolutely right. I’ve pointed to technology as the next frontier. People have better access to digital technologies, and they’re saying, “We’re not going to wait for Hollywood, we’re gonna make our own.” That’s incredible but diversity in sexualities and genders needs to be mainstream and accessible, they can’t sit in the indie realm. 

Right. Now that we are in this new and hopeful era, what do you want to see in Black horror? 

Harris: I just hope that we get more voices. Right now, Jordan, Peele is kind of the dominant voice, and he’s kind of the representation of all Black horror. And I think there are so many other voices out there that can be elevated as well. Other than him, there haven’t been too many regular Black directors, in the horror genre, that have gotten a lot of publicity and mainstream release… But, thanks to Jordan Peele, hopefully people realize that the genre can be taken seriously. It can win Oscars, if it’s nominated. And it can be artistic and break grounds… Hopefully, studios will stop looking for “the next Get Out” and have a broader vision about how Black stories can be told.

Coleman: I have to pick up Mark’s thread. I don’t think every Black horror film has to be pedagogical and our social syllabus. Rachel True said it best in the Horror Noire documentary: “Everybody lives or everybody dies.” And that encapsulates what I want from my Black horror. Sometimes I just want it to be horror. I want it to be entertaining, it doesn’t have to be deep social commentary. There are so many inventive stories that are rooted in Blackness that can be told, and I’m waiting for that. And it doesn’t all have to be Get Out. It doesn’t have to be powerful social commentary, elevated horror, all of that… Sometimes it can just be everybody dies.

The Black Guy Dies First is currently available for purchase.

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The horror genre is often a reflection of our human realities, a mirror into our deepest fears and frustrating normative social structures. Through twisted narratives and unnerving imagery, we have to closely examine pervasive issues like stigmas around mental health and expectations placed upon a person’s shoulders thanks to patriarchy. And oftentimes, these stories weave in cultural traditions and folklore for more clarity on why people follow certain paths—or reject them altogether. All of these components exist within Huesera: The Bone Woman, powerful meditation on motherhood and immeasurable cost of bowing to familial and societal expectations. 

Huesera is not treading uncharted waters in the “motherhood is f**king scary” realm. It comes on the heels of many stellar predecessors like the groundbreaking Rosemary’s Baby and The Babadook. However, this narrative comes from a Mexican perspective, leaning into cultural beliefs, practices, and legend. It crafts something that is unique and quite unsettling. The film’s title itself stems from the legend of La Huesera. This Mexican myth is about a woman who collects animal bones—specifically from wolves—until she has a complete skeleton. She sings life into those bones, bringing the creature back from another realm. It runs free towards an open horizon, sometimes transforming into the shape of a woman. The bones represent the life force within us that doesn’t want to be tamed. And La Huesera seeks to restore what is lost. 

This figure gets a stunning reimagining in Huesera, a story anchored by the thoughtful direction and engaging script by Michelle Garza Cervera. The “bone woman” seemingly stalks Valencia (Natalia Solián), a woman who just found out she’s pregnant. At first, Valencia and her man Raúl (Alfonso Dosal) seem over the moon about the news, quickly sharing it with their relatives. But, the layers of this situation reveal themselves alongside La Huesera herself, a stalking, shadowy figure with a cracking skeleton. Does she seek to destroy Valencia through her child? Or, is she reaching out to her for greater revelations?

We slowly discover that Valencia’s carefully curated life is a façade, a conscious decision to go against her true nature to appease her family’s expectations. She was once the wolf, free to roam towards the horizon. And, with every forlorn look and anxiety-driven knuckle crack, Valencia spirals deeper into despair over her frightening new reality. An eerie cinematic shadow hangs over nearly every shot, dragging us into the terror that advances alongside her pregnancy. Solián certainly carries this film on her shoulders with a stunning and nuanced performance.

Huesera doesn’t make a full sprint towards the expected horror elements. Instead it opts for a slower burn approach to widen the scope of Valencia’s life. We encounter common family archetypes like the mean-spirited sister and the judgmental mother. However, they are counterbalanced with women characters who provide softness and a safe space for Valencia. With them, she can rest her fears, ponder her actual aspirations, and fulfill her desires.

Unlike other stories where the protagonist’s paranoia and pain is in isolation, Valencia has a window towards salvation. And, that salvation provides an ending that will be controversial to many yet satisfying within the scope of her world. Acts of self-preservation and selflessness coexist, a constant duality that mothers fight to attain. It culminates in a third act that is enlightening, heartbreaking, and brilliantly fuses folklore with the modern world.

Many elements of Huesera will resonate with mothers (and many women in general) across the globe. The assumption that because you are not “good with kids,” that something within you is askew. Endless pressure and shaming from elder relatives who place motherhood and a “traditional” nuclear family as the epitome of “success” that must be attained in some arbitrary time period. The labeling and dismissal of women who are childfree, whether by choice or uncontrollable circumstance. And, the gnawing feeling that if you do become a mother, you will never be good enough.

We experience this through Valencia, her palpable fears and discomfort being amplified by her experiences of the supernatural. It heightens the very real horrors that women face everyday: the potential of losing ourselves until we fade into barely visible shells of a human and not being believed, supported, or respected by those around us. Huesera hits the viewer hard with these horrors, elevating them above jump scares, crackling bones, and the looming dread that Valencia will birth something sinister. But, instead, it is more about the rebirth—or rather, a reclamation— of a woman who becomes completely broken only to have this experience reframe her entire existence. 

Chilling, thrilling, and deeply engaging, Huesera: The Bone Woman is a formidable debut in what will hopefully be a long and fruitful career for Michelle Garza Cervera. The film will hit theaters on February 10 and VOD via XYZ Films on February 16.

Huesera: The Bone Woman ⭐ (4.5 of 5)

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Pretty much since Lady in the Water, I go into every new M. Night Shyamalan movie with cautious optimism and/or hopeful pessimism. I won’t continually harp on the director’s fallow period, but it has made his last decade or so interesting. While some movies, like The Visit and Split were surprisingly good, he did give us Glass which was very bad. And Old which was… weird. His latest, Knock at the Cabin is maybe his most effective, most satisfyingly troubling in a very, very long time. Not perfect, but damned riveting.

The movie, based on Paul Tremblay’s novel The Cabin at the End of the World, began life as one of the famed Black List screenplays from writers Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman. Shyamalan did a rewrite when he came on board to direct, as he does, and while the movie has some of his trademark weird moments—characters in dire situations talking about unimportant things a major one—the plot retains the taut ambiguity throughout. And the performances, especially from Dave Bautista, really carry the events. It feels like an even less showy Signs in a lot of ways.

Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge) have taken their 8-year-old daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) to a remote cabin in Pennsylvania (of course) for a getaway. At the start of the movie, Leonard (Bautista) finds Wen catching grasshoppers and tries to make friends before saying some truly menacing things. Leonard’s three “co-workers” then walk up with makeshift weapons out of Mad Max and make for the cabin.

As you’ve probably seen in the movie’s marketing, the four intruders (the other three being Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn, and Rupert Grint) tell the trapped family that the apocalypse is coming, and they will need to decide among them which of them will die—and the family has to do the killing, not the intruders—to stave off Armageddon. This came to them in a series of visions, punctuated by plagues and blights leading up to the final end.

It’s a great premise, no question. All four of the intruders convey the anguish of having to take part in this while never letting up on their firm stance that they must, for the sake of humanity. Bautista is truly superb, underplaying his lines, trying to be as unassuming as a giant, muscular, tattooed man with an ax can be. As the plagues escalate, he remains firm even as the others show growing desperation. If his performance wasn’t as strong, the movie wouldn’t work as well.

The flipside of the story is where the movie falters a bit. We need to believe that Eric and Andrew’s love and devotion to each other is strong enough to defy these would-be harbingers. We need to believe just as much in the idea that these are just crazy people targeting a gay couple with an adopted daughter as we do that it’s all really happening. Shyamalan shows us very brief flashbacks to various points in their relationship; while Eric’s family supports him, Andrew’s doesn’t. Andrew’s rage at the world becomes palpable, but I don’t think the movie does enough to make us side with the family over the intruders. And that’s a problem. Their us-against-the-world mentality needs to be the movie’s strongest element.

The tension and, at times, effective ambiguity carry the story for the most part. Chiefly, and this sounds like damning with faint praise, nothing stupid happens. Nobody acts out of character and no winky plot cheats come into play. This was a relief. And yeah, it’s an early February release, so you can’t expect the world, I’ll take a solid premise executed effectively over zany shenanigans that fall flat. It really could have gone the way of Bird Box which was supremely dumb at times despite a great premise. This stays in its lane and succeeds more than it doesn’t.

Knock at the Cabin ⭐ (3 of 5)

M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin opens February 3.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Listen, one day, you’re feasting on honey in the Hundred Acre Woods, going on wholesome adventures with your best friends. And the next day, you’re a horror movie monster. It could happen to any Disney character. Actually, it couldn’t. But on the rare occasions that Disney characters end up in the public domain like Winnie the Pooh now has, it definitely will happen. And honestly, we welcome it. Seeing Winnie the Pooh starring in his own horror movie is amazing. Seeing the iconic bear reimagined as a nightmarish slasher monster speaks to a delightfully imaginative spirit that really inspires us. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is going to be just great, we know it. And we can’t wait to see it in theaters… And its sequel, when it comes.

A Winnie the Pooh Horror Movie Sequel Is Officially a Go

That’s right, the first Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey hasn’t actually released yet, but Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 is officially on the way. It even has a poster.

More blood. More honey. And friends gathering to take revenge. That certainly sounds ominous, but its sweet news to our ears. Sounds like we may get to meet even more denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood. We hope this doesn’t spell Pooh’s doom, though. It would not feel the same without him.

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey in Theaters

Yes, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey will officially head to the big screen. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fathom Events will bring this Winnie the Pooh horror movie to U.S. theaters. Additionally, it will release on the big screen in the U.K., Mexico, and Canada. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was only slated to release in theaters for one day, on February 15. But now its theatrical run has been extended to over a week. Tickets are available from 2/15-2/23. That’s quite the opening play for an indie horror movie about a scary bear.

You can check out the trailer for the Winnie the Pooh horror movie here.

About the Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey Horror Movie

Here’s what we know about this horror take on Winnie the Pooh. According to its IMDb page, the movie “follows Pooh and Piglet as they go on a rampage after Christopher Robin abandons them.” Additionally, it adds “A horror retelling of the famous legend of Winnie the Poo.” We aren’t sure if “Poo” vs. “Pooh” is intentional here. But we suppose Winnie the Poo could be the horror moniker of our famous bear.

Honestly, breaking a strong friendship like that could induce murderous intent in anyone. And Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, and Christopher Robin share a very intense bond. On the topic of our favorite pig, Piglet has definitely also seen better days.

Speaking to Variety, director Rhys Waterfield shares that Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey features Pooh and Piglet as “the main villains…going on a rampage” According to Variety, “They’ve been abandoned by a college-bound Christopher Robin.” Waterfield notes, “Christopher Robin is pulled away from them, and he’s not [given] them food, it’s made Pooh and Piglet’s life quite difficult. Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral. So they’ve gone back to their animal roots. They’re no longer tame: they’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.”

We honestly still can’t tell if Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey presents us with supernaturally evil versions of Winnie and Piglet or if we’re just seeing terrible men in masks. We kind of lean toward the fact we’re supposed to read Winnie and Piglet as animals, but it’s hard to say for sure.

Regardless, we assume whatever vacation our obviously-human leads had planned in the Hundred Acre Wood is about to go very badly for them.

Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey‘s Cast

Amber Doig-Thorne, Maria Taylor, and Danielle Ronald star in this Winnie the Pooh horror movie. Additional characters have names like “mauled woman” and “caged man,” so that’s exciting. We do enjoy this predominantly woman-filled cast. And hope that these ladies show horror Winnie the Pooh and Piglet what’s what.

And it sounds like we can expect to see this movie sooner rather than later. Waterfield shares, “Because of all the press and stuff, we’re just going to start expediting the edit and getting it through post-production as fast as we can. But also, making sure it’s still good. It’s gonna be a high priority.”

For now, it sounds like we’ll only see the horror versions of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. Variety shares that “Tigger, will not appear” in Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, “although there is a scene featuring Eeyore’s tombstone, the miserable donkey having been eaten by a starving Pooh and Piglet.”

Honestly, we can’t wait.

Originally published on May 26, 2022.

The post <strong>WINNIE THE POOH Is a Terrifying Slasher Villain in BLOOD AND HONEY</strong> appeared first on Nerdist.

M3GAN has become a national obsession. The movie about a killer robot doll crossed the $100 million dollar mark at the box office recently, and has found new life as the subject of countless viral videos. It seems we were all waiting for a new caustic killer robot doll to come into our lives, and the Model 3 Generative Android filled that void. Annabelle and Chucky who? Now, iconic actress and interviewer Drew Barrymore got in on the M3GAN love fest on her talk show, and donned the wig and outfit of the murder doll on her talk show. Her guest was the M3GAN‘s human star, Allison Williams. And as you can see in the video down below, things got appropriately creepy—and awkwardly hilarious.

We’re honestly not sure what is more disturbing, the M3GAN from the movie, or Drew Barrymore in full M3GAN drag. When Drew does the M3GAN crawl on all fours across the set, we appreciate her commitment to character. Williams seems genuinely creeped out by Drew, and we don’t blame her. That wig and outfit and those contact lenses? It’s all a tad nightmare-inducing.

Allison Williams was a good sport for going along with the whole bit for as long as she did. Drew probably came up with this whole thing for a chance to do the M3GAN dance, and we get it. We have a feeling every celebrity is going to want a part in the eventual M3GAN sequel. The 21st-century successor to The Twilight Zone’s Talky Tina is just that popular with everyone. But hopefully, that job goes to Drew. She’s clearly a big fan of the film. Plus, she worked with horror icon Wes Craven in the original Scream. Maybe it’s time she had another equally iconic horror movie scene with another deranged killer.

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A grainy camcorder reveals dark corners where ghosts (or worse, people) hide, ready to pounce. A soft, analogue aesthetic creates the intimacy between story and viewer—we are there, behind a veil of chiffon, watching fantasy and horror unfold. Or perhaps we feel like we’re watching something from far away, on a hill above a house, where something we can’t quite see stalks the residents. If any of these descriptors feel familiar, then you’re likely familiar with lo-fi horror movies. But what, exactly, is lo-fi horror? There’s no hard definition for this genre. In fact, it’s hardly a genre at all. It’s more amorphous than that—more of a vibe than anything easy to categorize. You know it when you see it. 

“Lo-fi” refers to the way the movie is filmed; usually on a shoestring budget, using the familiarity of a sputtering home video to incite terror. Found footage is often lo-fi, but it’s not the only indicator. Many films of the ’70s, with their dreamy fantasy aesthetic, are similarly low definition. Sometimes, at first glance, the film isn’t just lo-fi, but also low quality. But don’t be fooled. The truly scary lo-fi films prey on your assumptions and comfort. This analogue atmosphere usually reserved for home videos can be a vehicle for the bluntest form of horror—the inescapable and otherwise indescribable. 

Skinamarink Is the Latest Lo-Fi Horror Game Changer 

The latest lo-fi film to grip the horror community is Skinamarink, Kyle Edward Ball’s nightmarish directorial debut. The movie follows two young children who awake in the middle of the night and find themselves without parents. They are trapped within the walls of their home, the windows and doors disappearing. Ball shot the film—based on videos he once uploaded to YouTube–digitally and for $15,000. IFC Midnight released the film in theaters this January. To date, Skinamarink has grossed more than $1 million at the box office, at least 67 times its own budget. 

Such is the power of lo-fi. It doesn’t cost a lot to make a major dent, not just in the box office, but in the history of the genre. Some of the biggest game-changers in the last few decades fit that lo-fi definition. 

Skinamarink lands hits Shudder on February 2. And if you’re looking for more movies like Skinamarink to scratch your lo-fi itch, check out our list below. Prepare to be terrified for days. 

LandLocked (2021)

LandLocked, another brand new lo-fi horror movie, came out this January and is of a piece with Skinamarink in many ways. The film follows a character named Mason, who visits his childhood home on the eve of its destruction and finds a video camera there that can see into the past. He travels through the home, recording all of the memories he can, but soon develops an unhealthy and dangerous obsession with nostalgia. Though not as nightmarishly scary as some of the other films on this list, Paul Owens’ LandLocked serves up plenty to chew on—and, in this case, the implications are where the scares truly rest. 

Where to Watch: Rent here on Amazon Prime 

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)

It’s hard to describe Valerie and Her Week of Wonders—it’s one of those films you have to really experience to understand. Visually stunning and aesthetically sumptuous, this Czechoslovak surrealist horror fantasy operates fully in dream logic. It follows the eponymous Valerie, trapped in a nightmare where she’s stalked by vampires, freakish men and women, religious figures, and other horrors. The lo-fi-ness comes from that slippery, hallucinogenic quality. Director Jaromil Jireš uses this to his advantage, so that we feel like we’re on Valerie’s shoulder, trapped in the same perpetual hellscape.   

Where to Watch: Stream here on Criterion Channel

Lake Mungo (2008)

Joel Anderson’s Australian horror film Lake Mungo is a favorite in the horror community—if you haven’t heard of it yet, you don’t spend enough time on horror subreddits. There’s a reason for its popularity in those niche circles. The film conveys so much emotion and fear without the flashiness of a high-def feature. Told in mockumentary style, the film tells the story of a family attempting to reconcile with their daughter’s drowning death and her subsequent haunting of them. The film relies on effective background scares to create an atmosphere of dread. But is also hauntingly melancholic for what we don’t see. 

Where to Watch: Stream here on AMC+

Antiviral (2012)

Brandon Cronenberg, son of David, has his dad’s same sick flair for body horror. His debut feature Antiviral is an unflinching, gory spectacle, and fits neatly into the lo-fi genre for its fuzzy camerawork, which feels a bit like eavesdropping on a perverted underworld. The film takes place in the near future, where celebrities sell their illnesses to obsessed fans. It’s a film that took on new relevance in the COVID era, and feels ahead of its time in other ways, too, namely for how accurately and freakishly it examines stan culture. And while it may be lo-fi in look and feel, don’t let that fool you—the body horror in this is not for the faint of heart. 

Where to Watch: Steam here on AMC+  

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The movie that changed horror forever. The Blair Witch Project isn’t the first found footage film, but it absolutely pioneered a new wave of the genre. Filmed for around $60,000, the movie went on to earn $250 million at the box office, making it one of the most profitable films of all time. Centered on a trio of film students who head into the Maryland woods to film a documentary about a local legend, the movie had a tremendous impact on culture, with scenes we still meme to this day. It’s a prime example of how effective horror can be without special effects or music. The final sequence, filmed in shaky lo-fi cuts, is still one of the scariest horror endings of all time. 

Where to Watch: Stream here on Tubi 

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

Another ‘70s movie with a dreamy quality, Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is one of those aforementioned movies that feels like you’re watching from afar, let in on some horrifying secret no one else knows. The movie follows a young woman named Jessica, recently released from a mental institution, who moves into a country house with her husband and a close friend. When they arrive, they find a mysterious woman already living there, who may or may not be a vampire. Jessica feels her grip on reality slipping again—is this new woman actually a supernatural being, or is Jessica’s psychosis coming back to haunt her? The lo-fi filmography lends itself to the feelings of confusion and paranoia. 

Where to Watch: Rent here on Amazon Prime

Inland Empire (2006)

David Lynch hasn’t made a feature film since this 2006 oddball, which continues to puzzle critics and fans. Lynch filmed the movie himself on a handheld, low-resolution Sony camcorder, without a screenplay or much direction at all. The result? A maddening travail into the mind of an actress losing grip on reality, played by a truly marvelous Laura Dern. The film is also known for its bizarre opening sequence, which portrays a sitcom-style TV show starring surrealist, anthropomorphic rabbits. (It’s also known for its offbeat Oscar campaign.)  For years, Inland Empire was almost impossible to see legally, but thanks to the Criterion Collection, Lynch completionists will soon be able to own it on Blu-ray. 

Where to Watch: Preorder the Criterion Collection Blu-ray here (available March 21, 2023)  

Pulse (2001)

Japanese techno-horror is one of the scariest micro-genres, and lo-fi elements are basically synonymous with it. For example, the 2001 cult film Pulse, about a Tokyo-based college student who commits suicide. setting off a chain of paranormal activity transmitted via the web. The film follows three separate storylines centered on a trio of characters attempting to solve the mystery, which finds malevolent spirits crossing over from computer screens into real life. Part of the J-horror boom started by Ringu in 1998, Pulse will stay with you long after your first viewing. It uses background ghosts to haunting effect and (rightfully) inspires mistrust in all of our tech devices. What’s scarier than the screens we can’t escape? 

Where to Watch: Stream here on Vudu

Viy (1967)

Like Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Viy—a Soviet horror film from the 1960s—uses sumptuous fantasy-scapes to place us in a world outside of our own. The film follows a group of seminary students who vacation in woods and stumble upon a witch, who one of them murders after a scuffle. The witch is actually the beautiful daughter of a local landowner in disguise, and her murderer must stand vigil over her body for three days to protect her spirit—or else. The lo-fi sheen of the movie accentuates its camp elements and makes what would otherwise feel like dated special effects come off intentional and dreamlike. 

Where to Watch: Stream here on Shudder 

Session 9 (2001)

Brad Anderson’s cult classic horror film Session 9 is one of the scariest entries on this list, with an ending that lingers long after the credits roll. Set in an abandoned insane asylum, the film follows a group of asbestos removal workers who find audiotape recordings of sessions with a former patient. A series of odd events at the hospital coalesce with rising tensions among the crew, leading to violence and psychological terror. Filmed in 24p HD digital video, the movie at times feels like a documentary, creating intimacy between the viewer and the horrors inside the sprawling institution. 

Where to Watch: Rent here on Amazon Prime

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NYC is considered by many to be one of the greatest cities in the world. There’s so much food, entertainment, and general iconicness at the tips of your fingertips. The energy is unmatched and, as they say, if you can make it in New York City, you can make it anywhere. But, for Sam, Tara, Mindy, and Chad, making it in the Big Apple is a lot harder because there’s a masked killer on their trail. Scream VI is bringing ample terror to NYC’s subways and bodegas and, based on this first trailer, this Ghostface is more ruthless than ever. 

The Scream VI trailer starts off quite intense with Ghostface already hunting Sam and Tara. This one is certainly different, taking people down publicly with no mercy. Ghostface with a gun in a bodega?! Bodegaface, perhaps? And whoever this one is obviously has an obsession with the lore behind this killer. It’s harrowing to see all of this going down in an unfamiliar city for our crew.

And, I don’t know what’s going on with Sam, but she’s holding Ghostface’s weathered mask and talking about the darkness inside her in the Scream VI trailer. Speaking of that mask, it’s unlike any of the masks we’ve seen before. They always look like a freshly purchased Party City item. Is this perhaps one of the original masks that Billy and Stu wore over 25 years ago? What does it mean, exactly? Prior to this trailer, Radio Silence hinted that it ties into Scream VI‘s meta storyline. So perhaps the past is coming back to haunt them in some way, which sort of explains why we have someone like Kirby in the mix. She is a legacy character and a rare person who cheated death.

Hmmm. We will have to find out all the gory answers when Scream VI hits theaters on March 10. In the meantime, catch up on all you need to know about the Scream universe to make sure you’re ready for another round of Ghostface.

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It sounds like, we’re heading back to camp… Camp Crystal Lake, that is. Or, even if camp isn’t in session, although camp is often in session with Bryan Fuller, we’ll find ourselves soon splashing into the waters of Crystal Lake in some fashion. Peacock has officially ordered a direct-to-series expanded Friday the 13th prequel show titled Crystal Lake. This Friday the 13th show will be helmed by showrunner and writer Bryan Fuller. In a twist, A24 will act as the studio for the series.

There is a lot to unpack here. But we actually don’t know too much about the Friday the 13th series yet. Though, if you know Bryan Fuller, you might suspect it might have a good deal to do with the life and times of Pamela Voorhees.

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Fuller shares more about Crystal Lake, “I discovered Friday the 13th in the pages of Famous Monsters magazine when I was 10 years old and I have been thinking about this story ever since. When it comes to horror, A24 raises the bar and pushes the envelope and I’m thrilled to be exploring the campgrounds of Crystal Lake under their banner. And Susan Rovner is simply the best at what she does. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be working with her again.”

Meanwhile, Susan Rovner, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, notes about the series, “Friday the 13th is one of the most iconic horror franchises in movie history and we were dying to revisit this story with our upcoming drama series Crystal Lake… We can’t wait to get to work with Bryan Fuller, a gifted, visionary creator who I’ve had the pleasure of being a longtime friend and collaborator, along with our incredible partners at A24, in this updated version for Peacock that will thrill long-standing fans of the franchise.”   

Gifted and visionary are certainly words we’d use to describe anything Bryan Fuller touches. So we feel extra excited to entrust this beloved horror franchise into his capable and bloody hands and mind. Happily, Bryan Fuller will have access to anything and everything to do with Friday the 13th for this streaming show. Fuller notes to Fangoria, “I think over the course of the series, you will see many familiar manifestations of Jason!” and calls the series “pre-remake-uel.” He promises that if the show makes it ten seasons, he will take us to space.

Recently, Fuller also shared that Kevin Williamson would write an episode of the show. Additionally, Friday the 13‘s Final Girl Adrienne King will recur in the series, although it’s not clear what role she will play. Fuller also added, “We’re honestly going to be covering it all. The series is covering the life and times of these two characters.” We assume that means Pamela and Jason.

And so, we feel certain this show will feel and hit exactly the right murderous notes. And we’ll probably only side with any “villains” by the time the Friday the 13th prequel series ends. Just ask Hannibal Lecter if he agrees.

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If there’s one thing horror fans love, it’s an icon they can root for. And root they have! Early and often. One of the first theatrical releases of 2023, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster’s M3GAN has made a whole heap of cash and its titular robotic moppet has marched into the hearts of fans everywhere. Kind of like a mix of the Terminator and Chucky in the guise of a little girl. Except M3GAN is way saltier and likable. (She did nothing wrong!) And those myriad successes have allowed the studios to announce a sequel. M3GAN 2.0 will drop January 17, 2025. Two years to master that dance, friends.

We learned the info from The Wrap who report the whole band will be back together for M3GAN 2.0. Stars Allison Williams and Violet McGraw will return, with the original film’s screenwriter Akela Cooper penning the script. Williams will produce with Atomic Monster founder James Wan and Blumhouse founder/CEO Jason Blum. The movie has made over $91 million in its two weeks of release against a $12 million budget. That is a hefty win for both Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. Cooper and Wan co-wrote Wan’s 2021 nutso horror flick Malignant, so we hope this means we’ll get a sequel where M3GAN has to fight Gabriel, the back-of-the-head evil of twin. We can dream, can’t we?

The first film followed Cady (McGraw) having to stay with her aunt Gemma (Williams) following the tragic death of her parents. Luckily for the young, grieving girl, her aunt is a robotics genius who has made a life-size robot toy prototype who learns from a child its paired with. That robot is, of course, M3GAN, who takes it upon herself to protect Cady, physically and violently if necessary. And it’s necessary a lot of times.

We look forward to M3GAN (2.0) and her murderous exploits in two years’ time.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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I Still Know What You Did Last Summer capitalized on the revitalization of slasher horror films in the mid to late ‘90s. The original film was a who’s who of teen movie actors—Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Ryan Phillippe, and Sarah Michelle Gellar—and an interesting take on a killer origin story. So, it only made sense to follow it up with another installment. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer hit theaters on November 13, 1998 with a destination horror story and a few new characters. It may not outshine the original nor rank high on a greatest horror sequels list, but there is one redeeming factor of this flick: Karla Wilson.

Julie’s roommate and best friend Karla was portrayed by none other than R&B singer and actor Brandy. At that time, Brandy was the IT girl of Black music with her TV show Moesha, massively popular album Never Say Never, dolls, and other ventures under her belt at just 19 years old. Brandy was the obvious choice to reel in a ton of viewers who wanted to see if their music idol could make it out alive. The general rules of horror movies had all the cards stacked against Karla as the final girl’s closest friend and a Black woman. We did see what happened to Sidney Prescott’s roommate Hallie, after all. But she made it to the bitter end and that alone is worthy of praise.

Karla was the stylish, fun, studious, and supportive friend to the perpetually paranoid Julie. Yes, she was a fool to think that a radio station would call her for a vacation contest, but a broke ‘90s college student is easy to fool. And there weren’t any cell phones to quickly confirm the right answer nor the impending weather on this island. Karla also didn’t know that her friend was a part of a murder cover-up, so she went on this ill-fated trip with her boyfriend Tyrell, Julie, and their creepy random friend Will.

The killer wasted no time picking off the staff, including many Black staffers, but Karla had a great time…until things got weird. She supported Julie even though there was zero evidence of murder and chose her girl over having sex, which generally leads to certain death in horror films. One point for Karla! And when she found a body in a dryer, her main focus was getting the hell off the island. She was understandably angry with Julie but didn’t allow it to cause her to run off or instantly make a dumb decision.

Karla stayed with a group even though that plan didn’t help Tyrell. Things began to look like she would fall victim to the Black people dying trope. Karla was chased more than anyone else and made it through some close calls including falling through ceilings, greenhouse glass, and doors. However, she proved good at dodging a hook, leaping over a terrace, and running with an injured ankle.

She managed to avoid the anti-climatic final showdown and randomly appears the next morning when help arrives for Julie and Ray. How did she escape Ben that final time? Why didn’t Julie try to look for her after killing Ben and Will? Who knows. Karla wasn’t profoundly brave nor an innovative hero but she survived a killer trip as the solo Black girl. And she presumably moved far away from Julie and Ray to make sure she would stay alive going forward. Smart move.

Black final girls are rare or virtually nonexistent in horror films depending on how a person defines this term. In fact, even many of the Black women who survived their respective movies don’t fit the “classic” definition of a final girl, a phrase coined by Carol J. Clover in 1992. Clover’s examination of the last girl standing was largely based on slasher films where the main female protagonist has a showdown with the killer and either dispatches him, is rescued, or escapes like Scream‘s Sidney Prescott and Halloween‘s Laurie Strode.

So, if you use that definition, it’s pretty much impossible to think of a Black girl equivalent to those women. Karla is a supporting character in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and isn’t even present during the final fight, so she’s technically not the final girl. Survivors like Alexa in Alien vs. Predator, Demon Knight’s Jeryline, and 28 Days Later‘s Selena fit into a looser definition as Black women who live through the horror.

There’s also Escape Room‘s Zoey who lived and “killed” The Gamemaster, but that film is a psychological thriller. This means Karla Wilson might be the closest that mainstream horror got to a Black final girl in slasher flick during this time. (Years later, we got Mindy in Scream (2022).) I Still Know What You Did Last Summer definitely broke the mold in that respect… even if they went with the classic “boyfriend is the bad guy” trope.

Here’s a toast to Karla Wilson: the girl who got duped into a fake vacation with her killer BFF, fell though wood and glass, watched her boyfriend get impaled, and thankfully came out of hiding before the Coast Guard helicopter abandoned her for good. You made it through impossible odds and thankfully this franchise didn’t bring you back just to finish you off for no good reason.

Originally published on November 13, 2019.

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The formulaic use of protagonists in slasher flicks led to Carol J. Clover’s coining of the term “final girl” (a.k.a. the last girl/woman standing) in 1992. She’s the person who lives to tell the shocking tale because she’s either saved by someone or takes on the killer herself.

The golden age of slasher films in the mid-to-late ’70s and ’80s along with a resurgence in the late ’90s and 2000s has led to several characters who are just as iconic as the killers they faced: Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson, Sidney Prescott, and Sally Hardesty, among others. They are great characters, but it’s glaringly obvious that all of them are White women. So, where are the Black final girls in slasher flicks?

Why Aren’t There Many Black Final Girls in Slasher Films?

The reasons behind the absence of Black final girls in slasher flicks are pretty predictable. In the genre’s early years, major filmmakers and casting agents were overwhelmingly white and male, and didn’t think a Black woman-led film was necessary, profitable, nor relatable to the white target audience.

Black women and girls weren’t perceived as vulnerable people whom an audience could identify with as victims of violence. In fact, through the collective white lens, we were barely seen as people at all, much less valuable ones. This undercurrent still exists in the genre, even though Black women-led horror and psychological thrillers are on the rise. It’s a sentiment that is shared by many Black horror aficionados, including Graveyard Shift Sisters Founder & Managing Editor Ashlee Blackwell.

“It’s a statement about how Black women are seen in society and if we are even seen in general,” affirms Blackwell. “I think about that a lot because it’s something that really bothers me. It’s one of the reasons I started my website. I just want people to know that we exist—I want you to see me. It’s like when we are walking down the street and someone from the opposite side walks right into us. It’s so frustrating that we’re not seen as the people at the end [of a movie] who can be survivors.”

Black women in white-led films have historically been treated as subservient props for their white counterparts, hypersexualized temptations for the male gaze, or inherently evil and angry. This stereotyping is harmful on a casting and writing level because it keeps Black actors from securing roles as well as stories being specifically written with a Black woman protagonist in mind. Art and life continuously imitate each other so it’s no surprise that racism and biases play a large role in the lack of Black women leading slasher films.

This relationship between Black stereotypes and horror is discussed in Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, a Shudder documentary produced and co-written by Blackwell along with Danielle Burrows and director Xavier Burgin. The film is based on a book by Robin R. Means Coleman and features commentary from Jordan Peele, Tananarive Due, Richard Lawson, Rachel True, and Tony Todd among others.

It’s an insightful deep dive into the history of Black horror films along with Black people’s place in the genre overall. Blackwell says her relationship with slasher flicks is complicated because she loves these types of films but can’t help but notice the lack of strong Black character arcs and how it reflects sociopolitical standards.

“[Black people] are commonly sidelined and marginalized. I think from the ‘80s, I don’t know if you would call Night of the Demons a “slasher” but it’s the one upon hundreds of hundreds of movies where there is a Black male character that makes it to the end. That’s like the only one I can think of…Like the people in Horror Noire said, if we’re seeing erasure and conservatism in the ‘80s social political climate it is mirrored in what we see in horror movies too. Black characters are almost always victims.”

It’s sad because a Black woman-led slasher story would explore some intriguing questions. While many will rush to a white female character’s aid, how would this same situation play out for a Black woman in peril? Would she purposely avoid the authorities in fear that she will die by their hands instead? Would anyone believe her story or would she become villainized in some way? The truth is, Black women and girls are kidnapped, abused, and mistreated in many ways that result in the loss of life and agency. It would be powerful and affirming to see more Black final girls in a slasher flick to show that we are not disposable tropes.

Black Final Girls in Other Horror Subgenres

Black final girls certainly exist in other types of horror movies—Jeryline in Demon Knight, Alexa in Alien vs. Predator, Selena in 28 Days Later, and Lisa in Scream Blacula Scream, to name a few. In 2019, Black women dominated in horror with Lupita Nyong’o expertly portraying two leading roles in Us, Kyleigh Curran in Doctor Sleep, Taylor Russell as the Black final girl in Escape Room, and the recently released Black Christmas film with Aleyse Shannon. But this isn’t the same for slasher flicks and shows.

Many ’70s mainstream slashers like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Black Christmas, When a Stranger Calls, and Halloween either had no Black people in them or, when they were included, they were mostly background or throwaway characters. For example, Texas Chainsaw Massacre brings in a Black minor character to swoop in and save the White protagonist in distress. Sally escaped in the back of a truck but for some reason this poor man kept running down the road towards a fate that will forever remain unknown. Did he even have a name?

Black Women in Slashers, For Worse… and Improvement

Slasher films in the ’80s started including more of the sidekick “tough” Black guy who gets caught in the crosshairs of foolishness (and usually dies). Black women were even less prominent, and their fates were just as grim. In fact, there’s a list of several Black women characters who were often dispatched quickly so the action could get back to the people who really mattered in the story. Many of them died in profusely stupid ways, whether they were a “wise guide,” obstacle, distraction, or sacrificial lamb for the White protagonist. See Exhibit A for the dumbest death scene below:

It was a double edged sword for some actors who were glad to land roles but also wished they could be the center of the story. In Horror Noire, The Craft actress Rachel True speaks about wanting to audition for the lead roles like Gemma Arterton’s Helen in The Girl With All the Gifts, but having to play the sidekick.

“That’s the kind of role that I would have killed for in the ’90s, reading script after script after script and wanting to read for the lead girl but going, ‘Oh, no, okay, I’m the friend.’ So I’m gonna say, ‘Are you okay?’ … I have to figure out a million different line readings for the same line, because whatever thing is going on, it’s not about the Black people and what we’re going through. It’s, ‘Are you, White person in peril, okay?'”

Take biker gang beauty Fox (Gloria Charles) in 1982’s Friday the 13th Part III, who has a brush with the protagonists and gets skewered by Jason with a pitchfork. This is in comparison to two Black male characters with larger roles who survive the plot. Black women characters appeared (and died) in Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Halloween 2, Halloween Resurrection, and Freddy vs. Jason. And of course, there’s the infamous death of Jada Pinkett Smith’s character before the credits roll in Scream 2.

Speaking of the latter, who really thought that Sidney’s Black bestie Hallie (Elise Neal) would actually survive Ghostface? She dies simply because Sidney had to go back and try to pull a mask off a killer. Did Sidney not learn anything about the horror movie rules from Randy?

Thankfully, this franchise seems to be hitting a course correct with Mindy Meeks-Martin in Scream (2022). She’s the niece of Randy Meeks and, like her uncle, a horror nerd. Mindy survived this film and will be a key player in the next installment. However, she’s technically not a “final girl” because she isn’t Ghostface’s main target, much less the only girl to survive. That’s Sam Carpenter, the new Sidney Prescott.

Mindy certainly isn’t the first Black girl to make it to the end of a slasher flick. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer’s Karla Wilson (Brandy Norwood) stood out from the crowd as a major character featured on promotional posters and materials who lives until the end. However, she’s not really the “final girl,” as that distinction belongs to protagonist Julie James. Karla may have fallen through too much stuff and run in the rain in a white T-shirt (sigh), but it was still a relief to see her come out of the hotel alive.

Loretta Devine beat the odds as a campus security guard Reese Wilson in Urban Legend and Urban Legend 2. The character makes an impact in the first film and helps to set the events of the sequel in place. But she takes a backseat to Alicia Witt’s Natalie Simon and Jennifer Morrison’s Amy Mayfield.

American Horror Story’s ’80s slasher homage season garnered mixed reviews from fans, but it gave us Donna, portrayed by Pose breakout star Angelica Ross. She went from being a part of the group striving to survive to a villainous instigator to being the real MVP of the season. Donna herself didn’t believe that she would survive because none of the “final girls” ever looked like her. To quote: “A Black Final girl? Sweetheart, they kill folks with my complexion off first.”

To everyone’s surprise, Donna made it through and was explicitly called the final girl at the beginning of the season finale. Her title has been debated among fans considering that the season’s main character Brooke was revealed to be alive too. So it seems that Black women and girls have to survive alongside a non-white woman or two.

Blackwell is hopeful that the rise of Black final girls in other sections of horror will cross over to slasher films. But, as expected, there are still some significant hurdles for filmmakers and other creatives to climb along the way. She says, “I think the problem is these filmmakers who are building their resumes, getting into Sundance, and doing all these things still have a harder climb to get into the room and get the kind of creative autonomy to make these kinds of films. They are not given the money or resources and I’m hoping that changes.”

Black women have taken down aliens, lobbed off zombie heads with a katana, slayed demons, evaded zombies, and faced all sorts of seemingly insurmountable horror odds. It’s time for us to be given space at the forefront and be the final girl slasher films too.

Originally published January 6, 2020.

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